fred singerhttps://www.desmogblog.com/taxonomy/term/637/all
enAnti-Environmental Archives Launched on Earth Dayhttps://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/22/anti-environmental-archives-launched-earth-day
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/anti%20environmental%20archives.jpg?itok=Y4EXbmYE" width="587" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>If you haven't already given your treehugger friends a big Earth Day hug today, please don't forget! And I am of course more than happy to take all the Earth Day hugs I can get!</p>
<p>Why the hugs? Well Earth Day is reason enough I think, but an even better reason is because those working on the front lines to protect the environment deserve it. After all, environmentalists have been the target of ongoing attacks by corporations and special interest groups for much longer than Earth Day has been around. </p>
<p>If you want to see hard evidence of this history of attacks check out <a href="http://www.polluterwatch.com/" target="_blank">Polluter Watch's</a> freshly launched<a href="http://www.polluterwatch.com/anti-environmental-archives"> Anti-Environmental Archives.</a> Here you will find more than 27,000 documents, scanned and indexed into a searchable database, chronicling many of the efforts by corporations, think tanks, politicians and others, to quash environmental efforts to improve our planet and protect the species that inhabit it.</p>
<p>Take a scroll through the documents that constitute the <a href="http://www.polluterwatch.com/anti-environmental-archive/heartland-institute">Heartland Institute archive</a> where, for instance you will find this <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691716-heartland-institute-earthday-1996-newspaper.html">Heartland Earth Day publication from 1996</a>, making some pretty outrageous claims, like:</p>
<p><strong>“The threat of ozone depletion is exaggerated”</strong> by well known climate denier and <a href="http://desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">tobacco-expert-for-hire Fred Singer:</a></p>
<p><img alt="fred singer" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/frd%20singer.jpg" style="width: 830px; height: 413px;" /></p>
<p><strong>“Greenpeace claims chlorine poses a major threat to human health. Scientists disagree.”</strong></p>
<p><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/chlorine.jpg" style="width: 830px; height: 389px;" /></p>
<p><strong>“How the <span class="caps">EPA</span> Misled America on the Dangers of Second-Hand Tobacco Smoke”</strong></p>
<p><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/tobacco.jpg" style="width: 830px; height: 576px;" /></p>
<p><strong>And, of course, it wouldn't be a Heartland Earth Day paper without a good dose of climate denial.</strong> In this case from<a href="http://desmogblog.com/sallie-baliunas"> Sallie Baliunas</a>, well known to regular DeSmog readers:</p>
<p><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/sallie%20baliunas.jpg" style="width: 830px; height: 411px;" /></p>
<p>History is important. From it we hopefully learn from mistakes and take steps to improve.</p>
<p>Today, on Earth Day, while there remains a lot to do as we all help in our own way to make the world a better place, it is important to recognize how far we have come. And while climate deniers and their ilk are still out there, I would say their power to influence has been greatly diminished over the years. The same goes for corporations who are under more scrutiny than ever to do the right thing when it comes to operating in a sustainable way.</p>
<p>So take a minute to scroll through this <a href="http://www.polluterwatch.com/anti-environmental-archives">anti-environmental archive</a> and appreciate how far we have come. And then get back down in the trenches, because there is still a long ways to go!</p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2944">Earth Day</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/20481">anti environmental archive</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1077">sallie baliunas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/821">Heartland Institute</a></div></div></div>Wed, 22 Apr 2015 23:30:47 +0000Kevin Grandia9345 at https://www.desmogblog.comHow the Creation of Mann's Hockey Stick Led to a Climate Denier Counter-Attackhttp://desmog.uk/2015/04/04/how-creation-mann-s-hockey-stick-led-counter-attack-climate-deniers
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/Michael_E._Mann_talking_at_The_Amazing_Meeting_2013%20wikimedia%20commons.jpg?itok=eP0sWVPr" width="640" height="427" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Our </em>DeSmog <span class="caps">UK</span><em> epic history series continues with a look at the creation of Michael Mann’s hockey stick graph and the counter-attack launched by the climate deniers.</em></p>
<p>Michael Mann was “still relatively fresh” out of graduate school when his work demonstrating the rise in global temperatures caught the attention of senior climate scientists. He was quickly selected as lead author for a new report on climate change.</p>
<p>The paper by Mann, and Professor Raymond Bradley and Professor Malcolm Hughes was titled <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v392/n6678/abs/392779a0.html"><em>Global-Scale Temperature Patterns and Climate Forcing Over the Past Six Centuries</em></a>. It introduced into the scientific literature what would soon become known as the ‘hockey stick’ graph.</p>
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<p>The scientists estimated the global average temperature of the world over the last 600 years using ‘proxy’ information such as tree rings and ice cores when thermometer readings were not available.</p>
<p>The study concluded that the heat from the sun and dust from volcanoes had caused climate changes in the past “with greenhouse gases emerging as the dominant forcing [sic] during the twentieth century.”</p>
<p><strong><span class="quo">‘</span>Warmer Than Any Other Year’</strong></p>
<p>The paper, which became known among scientists as <span class="caps">MBH</span>98 (using the first initial of each author’s surname), set out the stark and worrying finding that temperatures in the northern hemisphere during three of the past eight years were “warmer than any other year since (at least) <span class="caps">AD</span> 1400.”</p>
<p>The publication of this breakthrough scientific paper landed on Earth Day, 22 April 1998, and coincided with the warmest winter America had experienced in recorded history.</p>
<p>Mann recalled: “I was caught completely off-guard by the amount of media attention the article received … some commentators attached an almost diabolical significance to the timing, as if nature was somehow conspiring with the world’s environmental activists.”</p>
<p>The hockey stick graph was improved the following year with <span class="caps">MBH</span>99 which took the proxy records even further back in time.</p>
<p><strong>Most Convincing Illustration</strong></p>
<p>The hockey stick was by far the simplest and most convincing illustration showing that the current rise in global temperatures was unprecedented and that something truly fundamental was happening to the earth’s climate.</p>
<p>Many scientists who had until then remained sceptical of climate change were convinced and the headlines and broadcasts meant that large swathes of the public were simultaneously concerned about the activities of the oil companies, the profligate use of coal and oil in developed countries, and the amount of carbon dioxide pouring into the atmosphere.</p>
<p>The oil-funded sceptics recognised the threat posed by this scientific paper and immediately launched a counter-offensive.</p>
<p><strong>Sceptic Attack</strong></p>
<p>The sceptic <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/richard-lindzen">Richard Lindzen</a>, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and fellow at the Exxon-funded Cato Institute, attacked Mann through the pages of the <em>American</em>. He claimed that the <span class="caps">MBH</span>99 hockey stick reconstruction used tree rings from only four locations, when in fact the paper used data from 34 independent sites as well as results from ice cores.</p>
<p><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/patrick-michaels">Patrick Michaels</a>, also from the Cato Institute, used his Western Fuels Association-funded website, the World Climate Report, to attack the first hockey stick. He authored <em>Science Pundits Miss Big Picture Again</em> in May 1998 and then three months later published an article by Drs <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/willie-soon">Willie Soon</a> and <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/sallie-baliunas">Sallie Baliunas</a> of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.</p>
<p>When Mann wrote to Michaels, the sceptic agreed to publish his reply on the same website.</p>
<p>Mann told me: “At that point, I still believed there was some level of good faith here. I hadn’t completely dismissed Michaels at that point. I quickly learnt as things escalated that there was nothing fair at all about the way they conducted themselves and the increasingly dishonest nature of the criticisms.”</p>
<p><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">Fred Singer</a> of the sceptic <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SEPP">Science and Environmental Policy Project</a> also joined the fight and, in May of the following year, held a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington with the apparent aim being to persuade policymakers that Mann should not be trusted as a scientist.</p>
<p><strong>McIntyre’s Curiosity</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.uk/2014/11/30/mcintyre-mission-obsessive-quest-disprove-michael-mann-hockey-stick">Steven McIntyre</a>, a millionaire minerals and mining consultant living in Toronto, Canada, was among the members of the public who would stumble across the hockey stick in the national media. He was not a climate scientist but had excelled at maths as an undergraduate at Cambridge University and still enjoyed a challenge.</p>
<p>He thought he recognised the hockey stick from the bogus-looking business proposals that would cross his desk with depressing regularity, showing that a lacklustre company was about to hit the big time.</p>
<p>McIntyre was curious and began, independently, to research Mann and his paper on the internet. It was the beginning of a journey that would see the two men engage in a hot-tempered duel over the truth that would be reported breathlessly by the international media and would ultimately culminate in the Climategate email hacking. </p>
<p><em>Our </em>DeSmog <span class="caps">UK</span> <em>epic history series will continue with the merger between two oil giants, Exxon and Mobil. </em></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/brendanmontague">@brendanmontague</a></p>
<p>Photo: Wikipedia Commons</p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/michael-mann">michael mann</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3952">richard lindzen</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/patrick-michaels">patrick michaels</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/willie-soon">Willie Soon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div></div></div>Sat, 04 Apr 2015 07:01:00 +0000Brendan Montague9218 at https://www.desmogblog.comTobacco Gun for Hire James Enstrom, Willie Soon and the Climate Deniers Attack on Merchants of Doubthttps://www.desmogblog.com/2015/03/13/tobacco-gun-hire-james-enstrom-willie-soon-climate-change
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/james%20enstrom.jpg?itok=7fWEvaV7" width="271" height="328" alt="James Enstrom" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>This article was co-written by Dan Zegart, author of <em>Civil Warriors, the legal siege on the tobacco industry.</em></p>
<p>A leaked email chain <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/2015/03/10/merchants-doubt-debut-fred-singer-deniers-lawsuit">reported earlier this week on DeSmog</a> shines a harsh light on the behind-the-scenes coordination between well-known climate deniers and fossil fuel funded spindoctors. </p>
<p>But it turns out that there is much more to this story than just climate change, and we find ourselves once again reaching back into the rich history of scientists paid by tobacco companies to conduct research bringing into question the links between cigarette smoke and cancer. </p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The October 2014 email discussion, led by infamous </span><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">climate denier Fred Singer</a>, <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">asks whether it would make sense to file a lawsuit to try and stop the release of the new feature length documentary, <a href="http://sonyclassics.com/merchantsofdoubt/" target="_blank">Merchants of Doubt </a>– a film tracing the tactics used by Big Tobacco to spread misinformation and how those same tactics are now being used by those attacking climate change science and the <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/">97% consensus</a>. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">As an expert-for-hire who has <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/no-apology-is-owed-dr-s-fred-singer-and-none-will-be-forthcoming">taken money from both Big Tobacco</a> and fossil fuel companies over the span of his career, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/S._Fred_Singer">S. Fred </a></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/S._Fred_Singer">Singer</a> is a major focal point in Merchants of Doubt.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">But where the really interesting story lies, is in two of the recipients of the Singer email who share an uncannily similar history.</span></p>
<!--break-->
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">One recipient is <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/willie-soon">Willie Soon</a>, a name familiar to loyal DeSmog readers who have no doubt seen stories on the <a href="http://www.climateinvestigations.org/willie-soon-harvard-smithsonian-documents-reveal-southern-company-scandal" target="_blank">Willie Soon Harvard-Smithsonian scandal</a> over the past few weeks. Dr. Soon, has been making headlines for his funding from utility (coal) and oil companies, in exchange for publishing peer reviewed scientific papers that question the role of carbon dioxide pollution in warming the planet. </span></p>
<p>Another recipient on the Singer email chain, James Enstrom, advised Singer to launch grievances with Stanford, Harvard and University of California against Naomi Oreskes and Stanton Glantz — an intimidating 'attack the messenger' tactic we'll revisit in a moment. <br /><br />
Enstrom is a former <span style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px;">University of California Los Angeles epidemiologist who </span>has been<span style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;"> making</span><a href="http://watchdogwire.com/california/2014/02/13/the-firing-of-dr-james-enstrom-the-dangers-of-bucking-fashionable-science/" rel="nofollow" style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;"> headlines as of late</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;"> after <span class="caps">UCLA</span> settled a wrongful termination suit that Enstrom had filed. Some right-wing blogs have portrayed Enstrom as a hero for winning the suit last month, in which he claims he was let go by <span class="caps">UCLA</span> in an attempt to “purge an academic dissenter.”</span></p>
<p style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px;"><a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/06/dissident-air-pollution-researcher-sues-university-over-firing.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">At the crux of the suit </a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;">was Enstrom's research concluding that there is no causal link between diesel soot and deaths in California — a conclusion that runs contrary to the California Air Resources Board's claim that new fuel standards on diesel emissions in that State will save close to 10,000 lives over the next 14 years and save billions in health care costs.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;">Enstrom says it was his contrarian view that resulted in <span class="caps">UCLA</span> not renewing his contract.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In the recently exposed Singer emails, Enstrom suggests that instead of suing those behind the Merchants of Doubt film, that Singer instead go on the attack and lodge complaints to Harvard and Stanford against Dr. Naomi Oreskes, the professor whose <a href="http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/">book</a> with Erik Conway of the same name serves as a foundation for the film. </span></p>
<p>Enstrom writes:</p>
<p><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Fred%20Singer%20emails%20re%20Merchants%20of%20Doubt.pdf"><img alt="merchants of doubt" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/merchants%20of%20doubt.jpg" style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 550px; height: 120px;" /></a></p>
<p>Enstrom elaborates on how this attack could unfold:</p>
<p><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Fred%20Singer%20emails%20re%20Merchants%20of%20Doubt.pdf"><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/james%20enstrom.png" style="width: 550px; height: 191px;" /></a></p>
<p>Apparently the academic freedoms Enstrom appears to hold so dear in his wrongful dismissal suit, do not extend past himself.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px;">But it is not the <span class="caps">UCLA</span> lawsuit, or Enstrom's name alongside Soon's on the Singer email string, where the similarities lie between Enstrom and Soon.</span></p>
<p>It is instead the willingness of both men to take large sums of money from industry-related interests and then to produce science that suits those interests' needs. </p>
<p>While Soon was recently exposed for taking money from fossil fuel interests and failing to disclose it to Congress or science journals, while Enstrom has been taking large sums of money from tobacco companies over the years and often not disclosing it. </p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">For almost thirty years, <a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/search/basic;jsessionid=0400C3B020AF5559DE9D627A91AAF2D6.tobacco03?fd=0&amp;q=james+enstrom">Enstrom's research into smoking and health</a> was funded by the cigarette makers.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In fact, Enstrom did so much work for Big Tobacco that when the United States Department of Justice summed up <a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/rmd17a00/pdf" target="_blank">i</a></span><a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/rmd17a00/pdf" target="_blank"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">ts civil <span class="caps">RICO</span> case against the cigarette makers</span></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> [<span class="caps">PDF</span>] at the end of a months-long trial in a lengthy legal filing, Enstrom got his own chapter — one of just three scientists singled out by <span class="caps">DOJ</span> out of many dozens of tobacco-funded researchers for having been vital to the industry's efforts to sow confusion about the health effects of smoking.</span></p>
<p><span class="caps">U.S.</span> District Court Judge Gladys Kessler apparently agreed on Enstrom's role, singling out his work for extensive treatment in a scathing <a href="http://publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/doj-final-opinion.pdf" target="_blank">1652-page final opinion in 2006</a> [<span class="caps">PDF</span>] in which she ruled that the tobacco companies were indeed a “racketeer influenced and corrupt organization” under the <span class="caps">RICO</span> law, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>In a section entitled “Defendants and Their Paid Consultants Controlled <span class="caps">ETS</span> Research Findings,” Kessler zeroed in on a 2003 study published in the <em>British Medical Journal</em> by Enstrom and co-author Geoffrey Kabat claiming that links between secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (<span class="caps">ETS</span>) and lung cancer or coronary heart disease “may be considerably weaker than generally believed.” </p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The study was “funded and managed” by the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Indoor_Air_Research" target="_blank">Center for Indoor Air Research</a>, a scientific front group set up to cast doubt on the link between <span class="caps">ETS</span> and disease, to the tune of $525,000 in 1998, after Enstrom did a “pre-cursor” study for $150,000 in 1997 — a year in which he was already being paid by another tobacco front called the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_Tobacco_Research" target="_blank">Council for Tobacco Research</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Kessler wrote that Enstrom chose </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;">to examine</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> data that was the least likely to show an association between <span class="caps">ETS</span> and disease, despite being “repeatedly warned” by the American Cancer Society that using the data,</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">“in the manner he was using it would lead to unreliable results. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Enstrom used only a small subset of the overall data, and, more importantly, the data corresponded to participants who enrolled in 1959, a time when exposure to tobacco smoke was common.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Kessler noted that the Center for Indoor Air Research funded two types of research proposals. One set were pre-screened by the <span class="caps">CIAR</span>'s Scientific Advisory Board, made up of scientists from outside the industry.<br /><br />
But Enstrom's study was funded as an “Applied Project.” Applied Projects by-passed the <span class="caps">SAB</span> and were chosen directly by the <span class="caps">CIAR</span>'s Board of Directors, made up of in-house tobacco scientists, executives and a high-ranking industry lawyer. </span></p>
<p>In fact, legal considerations — and lawyers — were at the very heart of the decision-making process at <span class="caps">CIAR</span>.</p>
<p><a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/gjl67e00/pdf" target="_blank">Wrote Don Hoel</a>, an attorney with Shook Hardy and Bacon (<span class="caps">SHB</span>), which represented tobacco company Philip Morris (<span class="caps">PM</span>):</p>
<p>“Within that organization [<span class="caps">CIAR</span>], <span class="caps">SHB</span> represents the interests of <span class="caps">PM</span> in evaluating research proposals and in determining which existing projects should be continued.” </p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Enstrom's contracts specified that among the “deliverables” his research was expected to produce was publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.</span></p>
<p>With the source of his funding kept confidential, Enstrom became a high profile authority in articles in the mainstream press which cited him as an independent scientist who was convinced that the evidence linking <span class="caps">ETS</span> to disease was weak.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Back to present day. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">While as far as we know Soon has no ties to big tobacco, nor has he done any work that brings into question the links between cancer and tobacco smoke, the similarities in the stories of Soon and Enstrom, and the trajectories of their careers, are uncanny.</span></p>
<p>Two scientists found to have been paid large sums of money by companies that benefit from their conclusions.</p>
<p>For Enstrom, his research bringing into question the links between tobacco smoke and cancer, with his Big Tobacco sponsors hoping the effect will be to slow proposed regulations limiting exposure to tobacco smoke in public places.</p>
<p>For Soon, his research downplaying the role fossil fuels play in climate change, with his Big Oil and Coal sponsors hoping the effect will be to slow down government regulations that would curtail carbon emissions from dirty fossil fuels. </p>
<p>Some might say this has all the makings of a grand conspiracy theory. But when something is documented this well and the links are made based on solid evidence there is very little theory left to prove.</p>
<p>And while this story is about two of the main characters, there is a larger question about where the corporations fit in. </p>
<p>In the case of the tobacco companies, that question has already been answered in the form of a massive class action lawsuit by 50 <span class="caps">US</span> State Attorneys General that was settled for a whopping $206 billion. </p>
<p>In the case of the fossil fuel companies paying the likes of Soon to deliver science that suits their needs, that story has yet to reach its final chapter. </p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/20001">james enstrom</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/willie-soon">Willie Soon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1251">tobacco</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div></div></div>Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:31:17 +0000Kevin Grandia9198 at https://www.desmogblog.comMerchants of Doubt Film Debuts, Textbook Denial Attack Campaign Led By Fred Singer Ensueshttps://www.desmogblog.com/2015/03/10/merchants-doubt-debut-fred-singer-deniers-lawsuit
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/merchants%20of%20doubt1.jpg?itok=Ig_tfKAd" width="555" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://sonyclassics.com/merchantsofdoubt/"><strong>Merchants of Doubt</strong></a>, a new film from Food Inc. director <a href="http://robertkennerfilms.com/films/files/detail.php?id=8">Robert Kenner</a>, hits the big screen nationwide this week and it is already making controversial headlines as the climate deniers go on the attack as predictably as possible. </p>
<p>Merchants of Doubt zooms in on the anti-science campaign outlined in <a href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/bios/oreskes.html">Naomi Oreskes'</a> book of the same name, and <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">has some pretty shocking and frank interviews with some of the more colorful and influential operatives in the climate denier movement. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Apparently the film sent such a wave of indigestion through the climate denial cabal that, back in October, <strong><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/S._Fred_Singer">S. Fred Singer</a></strong> and a small group of his chosen deniers and <span class="caps">PR</span> spindoctors discussed via email the opportunity to sue the film into oblivion. </span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060014671">E <span class="amp">&amp;</span> E revealed yesterday an email chain</a> written by the grandfather of climate denial, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">Fred Singer</a>, in which he seeks legal advice from the likes of <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/marc-morano">Marc Morano</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/anthony-watts">Anthony Watts</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/james-delingpole">James Delingpole</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton">Christopher Monckton</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/tim-ball">Tim Ball</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/patrick-michaels">Patrick Michaels</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/judith-curry">Judith Curry</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/willie-soon">Willie Soon</a> and <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/joseph-bast">Joseph Bast</a>, asking:</p>
<p><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/gents.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 133px;" /></p>
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<p>One of the recipients of the Singer email is James Enstrom (a researcher skewered in the media decades ago for his <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/28/local/me-tobacco28">skeptical views on the links</a> between tobacco smoke and cancer, while at the same time he <a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/document/page?tid=hjl67e00">collected checks from Phillip Morris</a>) who suggests that Singer go on the attack before considering any legal action:</p>
<p><img alt="merchants of doubt" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/merchants%20of%20doubt.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 109px;" /></p>
<p>The film debuts across the country this week and no lawsuits have arrived on Dr. Oreskes' or Robert Kenner's doorsteps. Although a stern letter of warning from Singer to Kenner was sent last week and subsequently <a href="http://tobacco.ucsf.edu/climate-denier-fred-singer-complains-about-merchants-doubt">published here</a> on the blog maintained by the Center for Tobacco Control, Research and Education.</p>
<p>But nonetheless this email string is important in that it shows clearly that there is a small group of climate deniers that are colluding behind the scenes to stifle their critics in a coordinated way. The casual language and easy offers of assistance make it clear that this is a group that is familiar to each other and has coordinated together in the past.</p>
<p><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Fred%20Singer%20emails%20re%20Merchants%20of%20Doubt.pdf"><strong>Read and download a copy of the entire Fred Singer Merchants of Doubt email chain</strong>. </a></p>
<p>One of the recipients of the Singer email, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/marc-morano">Marc Morano</a>, offers up a poignant interview in Merchants of Doubt, making it clear that he revels in his leadership role amongst climate deniers and his view that it is not scientific fact that wins the day, but who wins the communications war in popular media. </p>
<p>Here's the official Merchants of Doubt trailer, which heavily features Morano, who I have to say (or would like to think) will someday look back with deep regret for his complete lack of respect for science and academic endeavor. Or at least he might be embarrassed by it:</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j8ii9zGFDtc" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>Merchants of Doubt opened at select theaters in New York and Los Angeles this past weekend and will open across the <span class="caps">US</span> in the coming weeks.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sonyclassics.com/merchantsofdoubt/dates.html">You can visit this page to see when it is playing at a theater near you. </a></p>
<p>And if you want to help spread the word about the film, then <a href="http://ctt.ec/QNF73">click here to tweet out a link and message about Merchants of Doubt.</a></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19976">merchants of doubt movie</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/naomi-oreskes">naomi oreskes</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19977">robert kenner</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3062">climate denial</a></div></div></div>Tue, 10 Mar 2015 10:03:07 +0000Kevin Grandia9179 at https://www.desmogblog.comHow Tobacco Shills Inspired Climate Denialhttp://desmog.uk/2015/02/04/how-tobacco-shills-inspired-climate-denial
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/fred-singer_0_desmogblog_0.jpg?itok=UZOcbN9r" width="413" height="310" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>DeSmog <span class="caps">UK</span>’s history series examines how the tobacco industry’s <span class="caps">PR</span> tactics proved inspirational for the army of climate change deniers.</em></p>
<p>Dr <a href="http://www.desmog.uk/2014/12/03/kochtopus-spreads-its-tentacles-strangle-climate-science">Fred Singer</a> and his sceptic <a href="http://www.desmog.uk/2014/12/10/fred-singer-granddaddy-fake-science-retires-sepp-president">Science and Environmental Policy Project</a> (<span class="caps">SEPP</span>) would become an increasingly important platoon in the army assembling against climate science.</p>
<p>Along with the late <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/frederick-seitz-dead">Dr Frederick Seitz</a> – a founder of <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/george-c-marshall-institute">the Marshall Institute</a> – the <span class="caps">SEPP</span> would use <span class="caps">PR</span> tactics developed by the tobacco industry to question and undermine climate science.</p>
<p>Seitz, for example, accused the <span class="caps">UN</span> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">IPCC</span>) of producing scientific summaries “exaggerating risk… solely – we suspect – to satisfy an ideological objective of aggressively constraining the use of energy.”</p>
<!--break-->
<p>Meanwhile, Singer (pictured) was busy raising money. He proposed to one oil industry <span class="caps">PR</span> firm that they should support a $95,000 project. This would include lectures and publications designed to attack the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> and help “stem the tide towards ever more onerous controls on energy use.”</p>
<p>Shortly after, Singer testified at the <span class="caps">US</span> House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that “there is no scientific consensus on ozone depletion or its consequences.”</p>
<p><strong>Industry-Funded</strong></p>
<p>Singer also appeared on the popular American programme Nightline to tell viewers that the climate change science had been exaggerated, but when pressed he was forced to admit that he had in the past received funding from oil companies Exxon, Shell and <span class="caps">ARCO</span>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.heatisonline.org/">Ross Gelbspan</a>, the American investigative journalist who first exposed Singer’s oil funding, at the time raised serious concerns about the “profound conflict of interest” which arises when a scientist claiming climate change is not happening is funded by Exxon.</p>
<p>He asked: “What would happen if the industry-funded ‘greenhouse skeptics’ just happened to stumble on a clue that the warming of the planet is, indeed, intensifying – and that the findings of the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> have validity? Would they be willing to change the direction of their research and, in the process, risk of cutting off their industry funding?”</p>
<p>But Singer used the <span class="caps">SEPP</span> not only to attack climate science but also to aggressively attack the latest research showing that even passive smoking could cause cancer, leading to millions of painful deaths – all the while being paid directly by the tobacco companies.</p>
<p><strong>Tobacco Benefits</strong></p>
<p>The eminent scientist drafted a report called <em>The <span class="caps">EPA</span> and the Science of Environmental Tobacco Smoke</em>, which was commissioned and funded by the industry’s <a href="http://tobaccotactics.org/index.php/Tobacco_Institute">Tobacco Institute</a> via the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alexis_de_Tocqueville_Institution">Alexis de Tocqueville Institution</a>.</p>
<p>A private memo sent to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/walter-woodson/6/649/7a2">Walter Woodson</a>, senior vice president at the Tobacco Institute, provided Singer’s curriculum vitae and suggested the industry lobby pay $20,000 for support in challenging the impacts of environmental tobacco smoke. A further internal document shows that the Tobacco Institute forwarded the cash to the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute.</p>
<p>Singer also benefited less directly from the millions of dollars the tobacco firms were providing to American think tanks.</p>
<p>In January 1995, he moved into the offices of the Atlas Foundation, which had been set up by the libertarian think tank founder <a href="http://thinktank-watch.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/sir-anthony-fisher.html">Antony Fisher</a> in his tireless crusade against totalitarianism, the state and regulations.</p>
<p>Atlas posted on its website: “For those who believe public policy should be based on sound science, Dr. Singer offers a wealth of information, credibility and encouragement.”</p>
<p>The think tank was paid $475,000 by Philip Morris, the tobacco giant engaged in a fierce legal and public relations battle to deny the scientific consensus on tobacco smoke.</p>
<p>While Singer was just one pawn in a much bigger game being executed by the tobacco industry, it did not stop him learning from their public relations strategies. Later, he would apply their tactics to the task of undermining the public trust in climate science.</p>
<p><strong><span class="quo">‘</span>Sound Science’</strong></p>
<p>In June 1994, a year prior to Singer moving to Atlas, Philip Morris began working with the public relations firm <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/APCO_Worldwide"><span class="caps">APCO</span> Associates</a> to launch The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (<span class="caps">TASSC</span>). This coalition falsely claimed to be a “grassroots” organisation advocating “sound science” in policy decision making.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.burson-marsteller.co.uk/">Burson Marsteller</a> – the same <span class="caps">PR</span> company advising the oil industry – was hired to organise and promote seminars as part of what they called the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Sound_science">Sound Science Project</a>. The public relations experts told the tobacco company that funding would have to be found from other interest groups if the project was to have any chance of succeeding in influencing scientists.</p>
<p><img alt="" height="494" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/4990923770_cd8b8b8dd3_b2%20Kadaltik%20flickr.jpg" width="610" /><br /><em><sup>Photo: Kadaltik via Flickr</sup></em></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>It is absolutely vital that we succeed in getting funding of the seminar from a broader group of sponsors than just <span class="caps">PM</span> [Philip Morris],” stated one secret memo. “Otherwise we would not be able to ensure the credibility of the seminar in relation to the scientists.”</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>And if the seminar has not got that credibility, then outcomes of the meeting will not have great value,” it continued. This advice would prove hugely significant.</p>
<p><strong>Corporate America</strong></p>
<p>The tobacco companies took it on board. They began to reach out to other corporate giants whose profits were threatened by scientific research proving their products were dangerous to public health and the natural environment.</p>
<p>Corporate America began to resist the calls for regulations, and in the process discovered the tremendous value of free market ideology with its distrust of the state, as promoted by <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/15047">Friedrich Hayek</a>, <a href="http://www.desmog.uk/directory/vocabulary/15060">John Blundell</a>, Fisher, the Koch brothers, and so on.</p>
<p>The arguments presented by tobacco to protect its financial interests would echo the sincere beliefs of the libertarians.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Science should never be corrupted to achieve political ends,” they planned to tell the public. “Economic growth cannot afford to be held hostage to paternalistic, overregulation.”</p>
<p>Big Tobacco spent $100,000 setting up the Restoring Integrity to Science Coalition “to educate the media, public officials and the public about the dangers of ‘junk science’.”</p>
<p>The industry would also “create a shadow version of the <span class="caps">US</span> Competitive Council… It would promote the need to balance environmental regulation with economic growth.”</p>
<p><strong>British Regulations</strong></p>
<p>Across the pond, the tobacco industry in Britain found some firm friends at free market think tank, the <a href="http://www.desmog.uk/directory/vocabulary/2751">Institute of Economic Affairs</a> (<span class="caps">IEA</span>). The pipe-smoking <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/20/guardianobituaries.obituaries">Lord Harris of High Cross</a> had formed <span class="caps">FOREST</span> to directly challenge the government’s attempt to set increasingly stringent regulations to reduce smoking in the interests of public health.</p>
<p>The measures being suggested were a ban on advertising and also the curtailing of smoking in offices, pubs and public spaces. <span class="caps">FOREST</span> argued that such regulations would undermine the economy, close down businesses and, most importantly, were a totalitarian infringement on the rights of the private individual to choose to smoke if they so wish.</p>
<p><span class="caps">FOREST</span> published <em>Through the Smokescreen of “Science”: The Dangers of Politically Corrupted Science for Democratic Public Policy</em> in December 1994.</p>
<p>Harris also chaired the advisory council with his <span class="caps">IEA</span> colleague professor <a href="http://www.iea.org.uk/multimedia/audio/prof-david-myddelton-unshackling-accountants">David Myddelton</a>, the popular author and journalist Auberon Waugh, and the soon-to-be disgraced <span class="caps">MP</span> Neil Hamilton.</p>
<p><strong>An Obvious Partner</strong></p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IEA</span>, with its long history of receiving funding from tobacco, and institutional ties to the Atlas Foundation in the <span class="caps">US</span>, would be an obvious partner in any initiative to bring the Sound Science initiative to Britain.</p>
<p>Tom Hockaday from <span class="caps">APCO</span> sent an internal memo to Matt Winokur at Philip Morris in March 1994, advising that a “<span class="caps">TASSC</span>-like group” should also be formed in Europe to counter the formulation of regulations of smoking.</p>
<p>Winokur confirmed that he knew <a href="http://www.desmog.uk/2015/01/24/the-exact-moment-oil-tobacco-funded-think-tank-imported-climate-denial-to-britain">Roger Bate at the <span class="caps">IEA</span>’s Environment Unit, </a>but claimed that after almost 20 years he could not remember he worked with him to establish the European Science and Environment Forum during the ‘90s. </p>
<p>He told me: “This sounds like a bad line from a movie but I really have no recollection.”</p>
<p><em>Next time, DeSmog <span class="caps">UK</span>’s epic history series will focus on one humble pamphlet that would prove critical in the relentless critique of climate science.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanMontague">@brendanmontague</a></p>
<p>Photo: DeSmogBlog</p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1251">tobacco</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7104">Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2779">frederick seitz</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19649">The Marshall Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/640">exxon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1268">shell</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1432">tobacco institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4410">forest</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14995">atlas</a></div></div></div>Wed, 04 Feb 2015 08:08:00 +0000Brendan Montague9041 at https://www.desmogblog.comFred Singer – 'Granddaddy of Fake Science' – Retires as SEPP Presidenthttp://desmog.uk/2014/12/10/fred-singer-granddaddy-fake-science-retires-sepp-president
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/COP15--climate-denier-Pro-001_iuf-berlin.org%20creative%20commons.jpg?itok=cZAS8Pb4" width="460" height="276" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Dr <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">Fred Singer</a> has announced his plans to retire as president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (<span class="caps">SEPP</span>) after 25 years at the helm as one of his generation’s most influential climate deniers.</p>
<p>But it might be premature to breathe a sigh of relief just yet. After all, Frederick Seitz continued to serve as <span class="caps">SEPP</span> president for two years after he died <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/mashey-report-confirms-heartland-s-manipulation-exposes-singer-s-deception">according to tax records filed by Singer</a>.</p>
<p>While the doctor of denial may have celebrated his 90<sup>th</sup> birthday this September, it doesn’t seem he’s about to slow down. His ties with <span class="caps">SEPP</span> – which argues against the existence of climate change – will not be severed any time soon. He plans to continue as chairman of the board “for as long as possible”.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>So, in honour of his retirement as <span class="caps">SEPP</span> president, <em>DeSmog <span class="caps">UK</span></em> takes a look back at the “<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/rolling-stone-calls-out-the-17-worst-climate-killers-in-the-us.html">granddaddy of fake science</a>”, as <em>Rolling Stone</em> magazine has called him, and his relentless attempts to debunk global warming.</p>
<p><strong>Against science</strong></p>
<p>Singer was aware of the science of climate change from as early as 1968. It could all have been very different. He was undeniably a skilled rocket scientist with outstanding credentials.</p>
<p>While serving in the <span class="caps">US</span> Navy during the Second World War he designed computer technology to help ships avoid mines. He then designed instruments for satellites and produced the first calculation of methane increases caused by human activity.</p>
<p>It was during the 1970s and ‘80s, within the community of Koch funders and funded think tanks in Virginia, that his scepticism started to percolate.</p>
<p>Singer first began attacking the health science and harmful effects of tobacco when working alongside fellow physicist and <a href="http://grist.org/article/from-tobacco-to-climate-change-merchants-of-doubt-undermined-the-science/">cold-warrior Frederick Seitz</a>.</p>
<p>He then moved on to attack ozone science and was among the first to challenge the science of acid rain, which he did during his time as professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia. By 1989 he had become increasingly interested in questioning the emerging science of climate change.</p>
<p>But even climate deniers are divided about Singer’s contribution to the science. Fellow sceptic <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/jack-barrett">Jack Barrett</a>, whom Singer has occasionally consulted, describes the scientist as a “sad case”.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>He appreciates the science but he is somehow against it,” Barrett says.</p>
<p>Things moved quickly after this. Singer wasted no time in setting up <span class="caps">SEPP</span> in 1990, and four short years later he retired from the university to become a professor at the Institute of Humane Studies (<span class="caps">IHS</span>), a hardline neoliberal think tank funded by the oil billionaire Charles Koch.</p>
<p><strong>Extensive Ties</strong></p>
<p>Over the next half-century, Singer’s time at <span class="caps">SEPP</span> was continually fraught with controversy.</p>
<p>Both Singer and <span class="caps">SEPP</span> have extensive ties to fossil fuels. While engaged in activities denying the existence of man-made climate change, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/science-and-environmental-policy-project"><span class="caps">SEPP</span> has received funding</a> from numerous oil companies including Shell, Uniroyal and <span class="caps">ARCO</span> as well as <span class="caps">USD</span>$20,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.</p>
<p>Singer himself has worked for at least 11 ExxonMobil-funded think tanks, including The Heritage Foundation. Yet he has famously flip-flopped between admitting and denying such funding, even going so far as to say the claims are an <a href="http://www.monbiot.com/2012/02/20/plutocracy-pure-and-simple/">“absurd invention”</a>.</p>
<p>In a February 2001 <a href="http://www.sepp.org/twtwfiles/2001/Feb17.htm">letter to <em>The</em> <em>Washington Post</em></a>, Singer <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/16/411584/-Updated-Global-warming-Fred-Singer-and-the-cosmic-ray-theory">denied receiving funding from the oil industry</a><u>,</u> except for some consulting work 20 years prior. This is despite <a href="http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=3207&amp;method=full">acknowledging on the television programme <em>Nightline</em> in 1994</a> that he had received <a href="http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?ID=4473&amp;Method=Full">such funding</a>.</p>
<p>Singer instead claimed that his connection to oil during the 1990s was more food than fossil while he worked “as a Wesson Fellow at the Hoover Institution; Wesson money derives from salad oil”.</p>
<p>His claims would hold more water, however, if he had not been employed by <span class="caps">SEPP</span> throughout this time, as well as being on a <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/mashey-report-confirms-heartland-s-manipulation-exposes-singer-s-deception">$5,000-a-month retainer from the oil- and Koch-funded Heartland Institute</a> to spread disinformation about climate change.</p>
<p><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/climate-cover-up">As James Hoggan</a> writes: “Singer has taken the amnesia defence: he says he gets so many cheques that he can’t remember who they’re all from.”</p>
<p>But it’s not just where he gets his money from but how he uses it that has proved questionable.</p>
<p><strong>Misinformation campaign</strong></p>
<p>One year into his professorship at the <span class="caps">IHS</span>, Singer and <span class="caps">SEPP</span> assisted in setting up the Leipzeg Declaration, stating there is no scientific consensus on climate change.</p>
<p>But <a href="http://naturalscience.com/ns/letters/ns_let08.html">an investigation</a> into the Declaration by a Danish journalist a couple years later revealed that of the 33 European listed signatories, four could not be located, 12 denied ever having signed and some had not even heard of it before.</p>
<p>Among the some-80 signatories in total, 25 were weathermen and the list of those who confirmed they had signed included a medical doctor, a nuclear scientist and an expert on flying insects – not exactly an overwhelming slew of established climate scientists.</p>
<p>When confronted with these facts, Singer removed many from the list, but other names were subsequently added to make a total of more than 100 signatories, many of whom did not state whether they had any ongoing research links in climate science.</p>
<p>This would not be the only time Singer was challenged during his misinformation campaign.</p>
<p>Justin Lancaster, a student of the late-climate scientist Dr Roger Revelle, publicly criticised Singer for misappropriating Revelle’s work in 1991 in what has become <a href="http://www.desmog.uk/2014/12/06/dr-fred-singer-s-controversial-use-aging-academic-s-work-climate-science">one of the most controversial episodes in climate science</a>.</p>
<p>In the now-infamous <em>Cosmos</em> article, Singer listed Revelle as a second author to an article directly contradicting Revelle’s scientific opinion that anthropogenic climate change was happening. But Lancaster’s claims that Singer leveraged the aging academic’s health problems to discredit climate science were swiftly silenced with a <span class="caps">SLAPP</span> lawsuit.</p>
<p><strong>Incorrect again</strong></p>
<p>Not only did Singer use an academic who was nearing the end of his life in an effort to debunk global warming, but later he would also use a friend's death in his personal pursuit of wealth.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/mashey-report-confirms-heartland-s-manipulation-exposes-singer-s-deception"><em>DeSmogBlog</em> investigation</a>, Singer committed perjury in his tax filings to the <span class="caps">IRS</span>, the <span class="caps">US</span> government agency responsible for tax collection, by claiming that the <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/frederick-seitz">climate denying physicist Fred Seitz</a> continued to chair the tax-protected <span class="caps">SEPP</span> for two years after Seitz’s death in 2008.</p>
<p>It was around this time that Singer was also spreading misinformation on the state of the world’s glaciers. In a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/may/10/environment.columnists">2005 <em>Guardian</em> column</a>, George Monbiot revealed a letter by <span class="caps">UK</span> climate sceptic David Bellamy, which claimed that 555 of all 625 glaciers under observation by the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich have been growing since 1980.</p>
<p>When Monbiot phoned the World Glacier Monitoring Service they bluntly replied saying this claim was “complete bullshit”. As it turned out, this claim stemmed from the <span class="caps">SEPP</span> website. Eventually, Singer conceded the information “appears to be incorrect” and claimed to update the webpage.</p>
<p>Despite this, Singer’s ‘science’ has been featured in numerous papers questioning global warming and he is a regular speaker at the annual Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change.</p>
<p>Singer has even appeared in a documentary entitled “The Great Global Warming Swindle”. The 2007 film, which portrays global warming as a hoax, also includes notorious British climate sceptic Lord Nigel Lawson among several other prominent deniers.</p>
<p>But it’s not just deniers that feature Singer. He has also appeared in the <em>New York Times</em>, <em>New Republic</em> and the<em> Washington Post</em> and has given lectures on global warming at well-known universities such as Berkeley in California, Stanford and Imperial College London.</p>
<p>It seems, then, that the aging scientist will continue to wage his war against science; not even retirement – and certainly not being proved wrong – will slow him down.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kylamandel">@kylamandel</a></p>
<p>Photo: <span class="file">Iuf-Berlin.org via Creative Commons</span></p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2779">frederick seitz</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7104">Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19321">Jack Barrett. Charles Koch</a></div></div></div>Wed, 10 Dec 2014 09:53:46 +0000Kyla Mandel8900 at https://www.desmogblog.comGlobal Warming Hasn't Stopped - It's the Hottest Decade on Recordhttps://www.desmogblog.com/2013/09/23/global-warming-has-not-stopped-hottest-decade-on-record
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/heat.jpg?itok=I8pUU_CX" width="640" height="427" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>With the release of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/19/ipcc-report-sceptic-groups-anti-science-campaign">a major climate science report by the United Nations</a> coming this week, the self-proclaimed climate “skeptics,” better referred to as the climate deniers or flat-earthers, are kicking it into high gear for their fossil fuel clients and right wing ringleaders. </p>
<p>The likes of <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/tom-harris">Tom Harris,</a> better known for his <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/nrsp-controlled-by-energy-lobbyists">lobbying work on behalf of the Canadian energy industry,</a> and <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">Fred Singer,</a> formally <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/no-apology-is-owed-dr-s-fred-singer-and-none-will-be-forthcoming">a tobacco company expert-for-hire</a>, are trying to make headlines again claiming that the warming of our planet has significantly slowed down. As Harris, a man with absolutely no scientific background in climate change, reassures us like a bunch of schoolchildren, <a href="http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_09_17/Don-t-be-scared-climate-change-forecasts-admitted-wrong-3501/?from=menu">“don't be scared.” </a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">I wish it were the case that the rate of global warming has significantly slowed and that we don't have to “be scared” of more extreme weather events, droughts and flooding. </span></p>
<p>But according to the scientific community, the experts who have decades of training in the field of atmospheric and climactic study, our planet continues to warm. <strong>In fact, <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100728_stateoftheclimate.html">we just came through the hottest decade ever recorded.</a> </strong>Not only was it the hottest decade recorded, it has occurred despite the presence of major cooling factors, like <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20120710_stateoftheclimatereport.html">La Nina's</a> and <a href="http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum/">reduced solar activity</a>. Such events should result in a significant dip in the earth's temperature, but they are only having a relatively slight cooling effect. </p>
<p>Not good. And not at all what the flat earth society is trying to tell you.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>For more on Tom Harris, see his <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/tom-harris">DeSmogBlog profile</a>. And for a look at Fred Singer, check out this handy <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153292000885422&amp;set=a.10153245558445422.1073741827.372799605421&amp;type=1&amp;theater">sharable graphic</a> from the Climate Denial Playbook series: <br /><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/singer.jpg"><img alt="" src="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/singer.jpg" style="width: 560px; height: 555px;" /></a></p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/838">tom harris</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/676">IPCC</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/13662">climate denial playbook</a></div></div></div>Mon, 23 Sep 2013 19:37:21 +0000Kevin Grandia7493 at https://www.desmogblog.comInstituto Juan de Marianahttps://www.desmogblog.com/instituto-juan-de-mariana
<div class="field field-name-field-rogueimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202015-10-24%20at%202.43.13%20PM_2.png" width="250" height="63" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h1>Instituto Juan de Mariana (<span class="caps">IJM</span>)</h1>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p>The Instituto Juan de Mariana (<span class="caps">IJM</span>) is a private nonprofit group founded in 2005 by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gabriel_Calzada" style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">Gabriel Calzada</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">, a climate change skeptic with connections to other conservative think tanks including the </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ludwig_von_Mises_Institute" style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">Ludwig von Mises Institute</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">, </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Centre_for_the_New_Europe" style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">Centre for the New Europe</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">, and the</span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Libertarian_Alliance" style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;"> Libertarian Alliance</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">. </span><a href="#s1"><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">[1</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.1em;"><a href="#s1">]</a>, <a href="#s2">[2]</a></span></p>
<p>The Institute<a href="http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/sites/default/files/files/article/funding_climate_deniers.pdf"> launched </a>with a seminar opposing the Kyoto Protocol, attended by <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/chris-horner" target="_blank">Christopher Horner </a>of the <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="_blank">Competitive Enterprise Institute</a>. Calzada previously represented the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Centre_for_the_New_Europe">Center for New Europe</a> in Spain, a free-market Brussels think-tank that had received funding from <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Exxon_Mobil">ExxonMobil</a>. In 2009, Calzada authored a report that claimed spending on green energy had destroyed 2.2 million jobs in a report commissioned by the <span class="caps">US</span> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Institute_for_Energy_Research">Institute for Energy Research (<span class="caps">IER</span>)</a> — a group that had received over $300,000 in funding from <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Exxon_Mobil">ExxonMobil </a>as well as funding from <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Brothers">Koch Industries</a>.<a href="#s3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span>[3]</a></p>
<p>The Institute is named after the Spanish philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_Mariana">Juan de Mariana</a>, who defended private property and encouraged limits on government. <a href="#s4">[4]</a></p>
<p>The Institute's o<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150105162134/http://www.juandemariana.org/pagina/10/mision/objetivos/">riginal mission</a> is “to investigate and make known to the public Spanish, European and Latin American, the benefits provided to the general interests of private property, free enterprise and limited scope of public authorities.” It claims no political affiliation. <span style="line-height: 17.6px;">The Institute's revised mission statement is “</span><a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/el-ijm/mision-vision-y-valores" style="line-height: 17.6px;">Deploying the Network of Freedom</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">” through a “Freedom Network,” “Knowledge Network,” and “Broadcast Network.”</span><span style="line-height: 1.1em;"> </span><a href="#s5">[5]</a>, <a href="#s6">[6]</a></p>
<h2>Stance on Climate Change</h2>
<p>According to Gabriel Calzada, founder and president of <span class="caps">IJM</span>, there is no direct relation between <span class="caps">CO</span>2 emissions and “supposed global warming.” He believes Humans have no capacity to cause climate change. <a href="#s3" style="line-height: 17.6px;">[3]</a></p>
<h2>Funding</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/tu/hazte-miembro">According to their website</a>, “The Juan de Mariana Institute is a private non-profit organization without any political affiliation finances its activities thanks to the aid it receives from individuals, foundations and private institutions that share its objectives. The Institute does not accept grants or aid to political parties or government agencies.”<a href="#s7"> [7]</a></p>
<p>A<a href="http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/sites/default/files/files/article/funding_climate_deniers.pdf"> 2010 investigation (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a> by Corporate Europe Observatory reports that Juan de Mariana has been shown to operate with money connected to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Family_Foundations">Koch Industries</a>. <a href="#s3" style="line-height: 17.6px;">[3]</a></p>
<p>In 2009, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20151024215425/http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/12/climate-deniers-atlas-foundation">Mother Jones magazine reported</a> that Institute Juan de Mariana received more than <strong>$100,000 from the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Atlas_Economic_Research_Foundation">Atlas Economic Research Foundation</a></strong>, a group which has funded a large number of other groups skeptical of climate change. <a href="#s8">[8]</a></p>
<h2>Key People </h2>
<p>As of October, 2015, Instituto Juan de Mariana listed the following “<a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/el-ijm/equipo">Team</a>” members: <a href="#s9">[9]</a></p>
<ul><li><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/gabriel-calzada" target="_blank"><strong>Gabriel Calzada</strong> </a>— President of the Instituto Juan de Mariana </li>
<li><strong>Juan Ramón Rallo </strong>— Director</li>
<li><strong>Raquel Merino Jara </strong>— <span class="caps">IJM</span> deputy director and director of strategy</li>
<li><strong>Ji Castillo </strong>— Academic Director of <span class="caps">IJM</span></li>
<li><strong>Inés Calzada Alvarez </strong>— Project Coordinator</li>
<li><strong>Luis Alberto Iglesias </strong>— Training Coordinator</li>
<li><strong>José Augusto Domínguez </strong>— Communications Coordinator </li>
<li><strong>Ignasi Bolto</strong> — Audiovisual coordinator</li>
</ul><h3>Contributors</h3>
<p><span class="caps">IJM</span> listed the following “<a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/el-ijm/colaboradores">Contributors</a>” on their website, as of October, 2015: <a href="#s10">[10]</a></p>
<ul><li><strong>María Blanco</strong></li>
<li><strong>José Antonio Baonza Díaz</strong></li>
<li><strong>Antonio José Chinchetru</strong></li>
<li><strong>Fernando Díaz Villanueva</strong></li>
<li><strong>Albert Esplugas Boter</strong></li>
<li><strong>León Gómez Rivas</strong></li>
<li><strong>Fernando Herrera</strong></li>
<li><strong>Alberto Illán Oviedo</strong></li>
<li><strong>Adolfo D. Lozano</strong></li>
<li><strong>Ángel Martín Oro</strong></li>
<li><strong>Pablo Martínez Bernal</strong></li>
<li><strong>Gonzalo Melián</strong></li>
<li><strong>Ignacio Moncada</strong></li>
<li><strong>Francisco Moreno</strong></li>
<li><strong>Juan Morillo Bentué</strong></li>
<li><strong>Adrià Pérez Martí</strong></li>
<li><strong>Daniel Rodríguez Herrera</strong></li>
<li><strong>Miquel Rosselló</strong></li>
<li><strong>Diego Sánchez De La Cruz</strong></li>
<li><strong>David Sanz</strong></li>
<li><strong>Domingo Soriano</strong></li>
<li><strong>Luis Torras</strong></li>
</ul><h2>Actions</h2>
<p><strong>October 1, 2015</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">Instituto Juan de Mariana's president, Gabriel Calzada, is regularly involved with Atlas Network events. For example, on October 1, 2015, he spoke on “</span><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">financial and political threats to the United States, highlighting the role of the Chinese economy, and immigration from Latin America.” <a href="#s11">[11</a></span><a href="#s11"><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">]</span></a></p>
<p><strong>November, 2010</strong></p>
<div>Instituto Juan de Mariana got $10,000 from the<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Atlas_Economic_Research_Foundation"> Atlas Foundation </a>as an award for their “Green Jobs and Green Energy Campaign,” <a href="http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/sites/default/files/files/article/funding_climate_deniers.pdf">reports the Corporate Europe Observatory (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a>. Atlas, who has received funding from Koch Industries and other corporate groups, supports lots of think tanks all over the world. <a href="#s3" style="line-height: 17.6px;">[3]</a></div>
<p><strong>May, 2010 </strong></p>
<p>The Instituto Juan de Mariana was a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100526101709/http://www.heartland.org/events/2010Chicago/PDFs/ConferenceProgram.pdf">co-sponsor (<span class="caps">PDF</span>) </a>of the Heartland Institute's Fourth International Conference on Climate Change in Chicago. <a href="#s12">[12]</a></p>
<p><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/denial-a-palooza-4th-international-conference-climate-change-heartland" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog found </a>that 19 of the conference's 65 sponsors had received over $40 million from ExxonMobil since 1985. <a href="#s13">[13]</a></p>
<p><strong>June 2, 2009</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">Instituto Juan de Mariana was a </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100714045601/http://www.heartland.org/events/WashingtonDC09/cosponsors.html" style="line-height: 17.6px;">co-sponsor </a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">of the Heartland Institute's Third International Conference on Climate Change (<span class="caps">ICCC</span>3) in Washington, <span class="caps">DC</span>. </span><a href="#s14"><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">[14</span><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">]</span></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">March 8-10, 2009</span></strong></p>
<div>Instituto Juan de Mariana was a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110428150744/http://www.heartland.org/events/NewYork09/sponsorships.html">co-sponsor </a>of the Heartland Institute's Second International Conference on Climate Change (<span class="caps">ICCC</span>2) in New York.<a href="#s15"> [15]</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institutes-2009-climate-conference-new-york-funding-history-sponsors" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog found</a> that sponsors behind the conference had received a total of over $47 million in funding from energy companies and right-wing foundations, with 78% of that total coming from <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/scaife-family-foundations" target="_blank">Scaife Family Foundations</a>. <a href="#s16"><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">[16</span><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">]</span></a></div>
<p><strong>September, 2009</strong></p>
<p>Shortly after President Obama cited Spain's success at creating green jobs, Republicans brought in Gabriel Calzada, president of Institute Juan de Mariana to present a study that claimed each green job in Spain destroyed 2.2 jobs as a result. The study bore the letterhead of the University of Rey Juan Carlos where Calzada is Associate Professor, but was co-commissioned by the Instituto Juan de Mariana.</p>
<p>According to the study, “the Spanish/<span class="caps">EU</span>-style 'green jobs' agenda now being promoted in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> in fact destroys jobs. […] The study’s results demonstrate how such 'green jobs' policy clearly hinders Spain’s way out of the current economic crisis, even while <span class="caps">U.S.</span> politicians insist that rushing into such a scheme will ease their own emergence from the turmoil.”</p>
<p>Calzada testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence, stating that “Europe's experience actually suggests that this is precisely the wrong approach.” The study that Calzada referenced was debunked by the Spanish Government. Gabriel Calzada also <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/09/01/fox-hosts-author-of-discredited-study-to-bash-g/183025">appeared on Fox News </a>to promote his study. <a href="#s8">[8]</a>, <a href="#s17">[17]</a>, <a href="#s18">[18]</a></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>2005</strong></span></p>
<p>When the <span class="caps">IJM</span> was launched in 2005, it began with a seminar against the Kyoto Protocol that was attended by climate change skeptic<a href="//www.desmogblog.com/chris-horner"> Christopher Horner</a> from the <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="_blank">Competitive Enterprise Institute</a>. Gabriel Calzada, the founder of <span class="caps">IJM</span> previously represented the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Centre_for_the_New_Europe">Center for the New Europe</a> in Spain. </p>
<p>The seminar which examined Kyoto and the Spanish Economy attracted Alberto Recarte, president of Liberty Digital, who said that Spain would be the country to “Pay Kyoto in absolute terms.” <span class="caps">IJM</span> arranged the conference in collaboration with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the University of Rey Juyan Carlos. Juan Jose Toribio, President of <span class="caps">IESE</span> in Madrid and former <span class="caps">IMF</span> Executive Director was also a speaker. <a href="#s19">[<span style="letter-spacing: 0.39px; line-height: 19.5px;">19</span><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">]</span></a></p>
<h2>Institute Juan de Mariana Contact <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Location</h2>
<p>As of June 2016, <a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/tu/te-escuchamos">Instituto Juan de Mariana listed the following contact information</a> on their website: <a href="#s21">[21]</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Institute Juan de Mariana</strong><br />
Calle del Ángel, 2, 28005 (Madrid)<br />
91 221 9824</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Related Organizations</h2>
<ul><li><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/atlas-economic-research-foundation"><strong>Atlas Economic Research Foundation</strong></a></li>
<li><b>Liberty Digital (Libertad Digital)</b></li>
<li><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute"><b>The Heartland Institute</b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Competitive_Enterprise_Institute"><b>Competitive Enterprise Institute</b></a></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ludwig_von_Mises_Institute">Ludwig von Mises Institute</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Centre_for_the_New_Europe">Centre for the New Europe</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Libertarian_Alliance">Libertarian Alliance</a></strong></li>
</ul><p>The<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Acton_Institute"><strong> Acton Institute </strong></a>previously offered <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20151024214402/http://www.acton.org/program/poverty_development/scholarships">Juan de Mariana Scholarships </a>for citizens of a “country with an economy deemed by the Acton Institute to be developing or transitioning.” <a href="#s20">[20]</a></p>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<ol><li>
<p><a name="s1" id="s1"></a>“<a href="http://www.juandemariana.org/pagina/3/instituto/">The Institute</a>” (Translated from Spanish via Google), Institute Juan de Mariana. Accessed March 2, 2013.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s2" id="s2"></a>“<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gabriel_Calzada">Gabrial Calzada</a>,” SourceWatch profile.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s3" id="s3"></a>“<a href="http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/sites/default/files/files/article/funding_climate_deniers.pdf">Concealing their sources - who funds Europe’s climate change deniers?” (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a>, Corporate Europe Observatory, December 2010. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmogBlog.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s4" id="s4"></a>“<a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/el-ijm/juan-de-mariana">Juan de Mariana</a>,” Instituto Juan de Mariana. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWky4MfR">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWky4MfR</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s5" id="s5"></a>“<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150105162134/http://www.juandemariana.org/pagina/10/mision/objetivos/">Mission and objectives</a>“(Translated from Spanish via Google), Institute Juan de Mariana. Archived January 5, 2015.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s6" id="s6"></a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">“</span><a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/el-ijm/mision-vision-y-valores" style="line-height: 17.6px;">Mission, Vision and Values</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">“ (Translated from Spanish via Google), Institute Juan de Mariana. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>:</span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWkL5tgK" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWkL5tgK</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s7" id="s7"></a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">“Become a Member” (translated from Spanish using Google Translate), Instituto Juan de Mariana. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWmLTkr5" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWmLTkr5</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s8" id="s8"></a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">Josh Harkinson. “</span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20151024215425/http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/12/climate-deniers-atlas-foundation" style="line-height: 17.6px;">Climate Change Deniers Without Borders</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">,” </span><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">Mother Jones</span><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">, December 22, 2009. Archived October 24, 2015. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWm6knbv" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWm6knbv</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s9" id="s9"></a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">“</span><a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/el-ijm/equipo" style="line-height: 17.6px;">Team</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">,” Instituto Juan de Mariana. Accessed October 24, 2015. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWo4OyxT" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWo4OyxT</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"> </span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s10" id="s10"></a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">“Contributors,” Instituto Juan de Mariana. Accessed October 24, 2015. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWnhjzCh" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWnhjzCh</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.1em;"><a name="s11" id="s11"></a>“<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20151024232019/https://www.atlasnetwork.org/event/atlas-network-luncheon-with-dr.-gabriel-calzada-on-threats-to-the-us">Luncheon with Dr. Gabriel Calzada on Threats to the <span class="caps">U.S.</span></a>,” Atlas Network. Archived October 24, 2015. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWrjX2f9" style="line-height: 17.6px;"><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWrjX2f9</span></a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100526101709/http://www.heartland.org/events/2010Chicago/PDFs/ConferenceProgram.pdf" name="s12" style="line-height: 17.6px;" id="s12">4th International Conference on Climate Change Conference Program (<span class="caps">PDF</span>),</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"> The Heartland Institute.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"><a name="s13" id="s13"></a>Brendan DeMelle. “</span><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/denial-a-palooza-4th-international-conference-climate-change-heartland" style="line-height: 17.6px;" target="_blank">Denial-a-palooza Round 4: 'International Conference on Climate Change' Groups Funded by Exxon, Koch Industries</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">,” DeSmogBlog, May 13, 2010.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 14.3px;"><a name="s14" id="s14"></a>“</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100714045601/http://www.heartland.org/events/WashingtonDC09/cosponsors.html" style="line-height: 14.3px;">Co-Sponsors</a><span style="line-height: 14.3px;">,” Third International Conference on Climate Change. Archived July 14, 2010.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"><a name="s15" id="s15"></a>“</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110428150744/http://www.heartland.org/events/NewYork09/sponsorships.html" style="line-height: 17.6px;">Co-Sponsors</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">,” The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. Archived April 28, 2011.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"><a name="s16" id="s16"></a>“</span><a href="//www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institutes-2009-climate-conference-new-york-funding-history-sponsors" style="line-height: 17.6px;" target="_blank">Heartland Institute's 2009 Climate Conference in New York: funding history of the sponsors</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">,” DeSmogBlog.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"><a name="s17" id="s17"></a><span class="caps">PERE</span> <span class="caps">RUSI</span>Ñ<span class="caps">OL</span>. “</span><a href="http://www.publico.es/internacional/lobby-neoliberal-del-pp-boicotea.html" style="line-height: 17.6px;">The neoliberal lobby <span class="caps">PP</span> Spain in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> boycotts</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">” (Translated from Spanish via Google), Publico.es, July 18, 2009. Archived October 24, 2015. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWrxmgVC" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWrxmgVC</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"><a name="s18" id="s18"></a>Jill Fitzsimmons. “</span><a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/09/01/fox-hosts-author-of-discredited-study-to-bash-g/183025" style="line-height: 17.6px;">Fox Hosts Author Of Discredited Study To Bash Green Jobs</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">,” Media Matters for America, September 1, 2011. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWsEFoom" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWsEFoom</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><a name="s19" id="s19"></a>“</span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20050421235502/http://www.libertaddigital.com/opiniones/opi_desa_24479.html" style="outline: 0px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Kyoto and the Spanish economy</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">,” LibertadDigital. Archived April 21, 2005.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="line-height: 17.6px;"><a name="s20" id="s20"></a>“</span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20151024214402/http://www.acton.org/program/poverty_development/scholarships" style="line-height: 17.6px;">Scholarships</a><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">,” Action Institute. Archived October 24, 215. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6cWlQaln7" style="line-height: 17.6px;">http://www.webcitation.org/6cWlQaln7</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="s21" name="s21"></a>“<a href="https://www.juandemariana.org/tu/te-escuchamos">TÚ,</a>” Instituto Juan de Mariana. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. WebCite <span class="caps">URL</span>: <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6icMHppDs">http://www.webcitation.org/6icMHppDs</a></p>
</li>
</ol><h2><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Other Resources</span></h2>
<ul><li>“<a href="http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instituto_Juan_de_Mariana">Instituto Juan de Mariana</a>,” Wikipedia. </li>
</ul></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12155">Instituto Juan de Mariana</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7917">denierorgs</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12156">Gabriel Calzada</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div></div></div>Sat, 02 Mar 2013 23:26:56 +0000Michael Fisher6926 at https://www.desmogblog.comClaes Goran Johnsonhttps://www.desmogblog.com/claes-goran-johnson
<div class="field field-name-field-rogueimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Claes%20Goran%20Johnson.png" width="200" height="242" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h1>
Claes Göran L. Johnson</h1>
<h2> Credentials</h2>
<ul><li>
Docent in Numerical Analysis, Chalmers University of Technology (1978).</li>
<li>
Ph.D. in Mathematics, Chalmers University of Technology, (1973).</li>
<li>
Master of Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, (1969).</li>
</ul><p><br /><strong>Source:<a href="#s1"> </a></strong><a href="#s1">[1]</a></p>
<h2> Background</h2>
<p>Claes Göran Johnson is a professor of applied mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He has produced a series of books titled<a href="http://www.bodysoulmath.org/books/"><em> Applied Mathematics: Body and Soul</em></a> and has published other work in the area of computational mathematics, finite element methods, mechanics and physics. <a href="#s2">[2]</a></p>
<h2>
Stance on Climate Change</h2>
<p>“…climate sensitivity as global warming by doubled <span class="caps">CO</span>2, can<br />
be estimated to be smaller than 0.3 °C, to be compared with the 3 °C estimated by <span class="caps">IPCC</span>, on the basis of the inflated radiative exchange from 60 to 500 W/m2 resulting from fictional back radiation/<span class="caps">DLR</span>.” <a href="#s3">[3]</a></p>
<h2>
Key Quotes</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>“If thermodynamics is the main mechanism of the atmosphere as an air conditioner or heat transporter, then <span class="caps">CO</span>2 will not cause warming, and <span class="caps">IPCC</span> climate alarmism collapses.” <a href="#s4">[4]</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>“…the realization that carbon dioxide alarmism has no scientific basis spreads rapidly among the world's scientists. Today, there are many scientists who know that the carbon dioxide alarmism preached by the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> and the Stockholm Resilience Centre is based on scientific falsehoods revealed partly by Climategate. There are many scholars who know that there is no evidence to suggest that a little more carbon dioxide in the air could be dangerous.” <a href="#s5">[5]</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>
Key Deeds</h2>
<p><strong>September 1, 2011</strong><br /><br />
Johnson was a featured speaker at a conference organized by climate change skeptic Anne Debeil and supposedly hosted by “The Climate Change Think-Tank of the <span class="caps">SEII</span>.” The original event was to feature climate change skeptics <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">S. Fred Singer</a> as well as Claes-Göran Johnson.<br /><br />
However, the invitation for this event was not sent. According to communications with <span class="caps">SEII</span> president Philippe Wauters, the event was initially canceled because the event organizer <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/henri-masson">Henri Masson</a> did not follow proper procedures or notify <span class="caps">SEII</span> board members before setting up the conference in their name.<br /><br />
Some suggest the cancelation was influenced by a letter written by Jean-Pascal van Ypersele to the Fondation Universitaire that had pointed out Fred Singer's fossil fuel funding, saying that it would be “scandalous that such a person could be remotely or closely associated with the <span class="caps">SEII</span> and to the Fondation Universitaire.” However according to Wauters, this letter was sent after <span class="caps">SEII</span> directed Masson to reclassify his event as a private meeting.<br /><br />
The private meeting was by <a href="http://www.nada.kth.se/~cgjoh/privateinvitation.pdf">invitation only (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a> with the seminar titled “Critical Thinking <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Complex Systems Analysis applied to the Controversy Climate Change.” <a href="#s6">[6]</a><br /><br />
Video of the seminar is available <a href="http://bambuser.com/v/1939093">here </a>and <a href="http://bambuser.com/v/1939418">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>2011</strong></p>
<p>Johnson presented on “<span class="caps">CO</span>2 Climate Alarmism Debunked by Mathematics” <a href="http://www.csc.kth.se/~cgjoh/climatemathematics.pptx">(.ppt)</a> which offers the conclusion that modern climate science may be the “biggest scientific fraud ever” citing supposed manipulation of data. According to his last PowerPoint slide, Johnson suggests that the blogosphere is the perfect “arena of skepticism” because it cannot be censored.</p>
<h2> Affiliation</h2>
<p>[Pending further investigation]</p>
<h2> Publications</h2>
<p>According to his <a href="http://www.nada.kth.se/~cgjoh/cvclaes.pdf">resume (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a>, Claes Johnson has published 100 scientific articles and 6 books on applied mathematics, partial differential equations, finite element methods and numerical analysis.</p>
<p>While Johnson has a<a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=40UhzoMAAAAJ"> significant number of citations </a>on Google Scholar, it appears he has co-authored only one journal article in the area of climate science titled “<a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.167.7332&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf">Basic Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere</a>,” published in <em>Relation </em>in 2010. Upon closer inspection, the <a href="http://en.scientificcommons.org/59225058">original source of the article</a> appears to be Johnson's personal website, and there is no detailed reference of any scientific journal by the name of “Relation.”</p>
<h2> Resources</h2>
<ol><li>
<p><a href="http://www.nada.kth.se/~cgjoh/cvclaes.pdf" name="s1" id="s1">“Curriculum vitae: Claes G L Johnson” (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a>, nada.kth.se. Accessed September 27, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s2" id="s2"></a>“<a href="http://claesjohnsonmathscience.wordpress.com/article/claes-johnson-yvfu3xg7d7wt-1/">Claes Johnson</a>,” <em>The World as Computation</em>, June 4, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s3" id="s3"></a>“<a href="http://up.sur-la-toile.com/iRZc"><span class="caps">CLIMATE</span> <span class="caps">CHANGE</span>: Latest Update</a>,” <span class="caps">SEII</span> (undated, unverified). Accessed Oct 10, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s4" id="s4"></a>Claes Johnson. <a href="http://www.nada.kth.se/~cgjoh/atmothermo.pdf">“Climate Thermodynamics” (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a>, retrieved from Claes Johnson's personal website at <a href="http://www.nada.kth.se/~cgjoh/">www.nada.kth.se</a>, September 27, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s5" id="s5"></a>“<a href="http://www.newsmill.se/artikel/2011/05/18/fr-gan-r-om-klimatjuryn-r-opartisk">The question is whether climate jury is impartial (Frågan är om klimatjuryn är opartisk)</a>,” Newsmill.se, November 2, 2011. Translated from Swedish with Google Translate.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s6" id="s6"></a>Press Release, <a href="http://www.theclimatescam.se/2011/09/01/pressmeddelande/">“University of Brussels and European engineering academy bowing to pressure from high official <span class="caps">IPCC</span> and Greenpeace Activist: Locked doors for the Seminar <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Workshop '<span class="caps">CLIMATE</span> <span class="caps">CHANGE</span>: Latest update',”</a> The Climate Scam, September 1, 2011. <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&amp;tl=en&amp;js=n&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;layout=2&amp;eotf=1&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theclimatescam.se%2F2011%2F09%2F01%2Fpressmeddelande%2F&amp;act=url">Translated with Google Translate</a>.</p>
</li>
</ol></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/913">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6886">climate change skeptic</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3068">climate change denier</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7705">climate denialism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2654">denial industry</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7706">denial database</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2560">global warming blog</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2540">desmogblog</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4046">global warming research</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4047">climate misinformation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5721">smogger</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10346">Claes Goran Johnson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10347">Belgian climate change skeptics</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10348">Henri Masson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10094">Anne Debeil</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10349">Michael Limburg</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10350">Drieu Godefridi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10351">Cornetin de Salle</a></div></div></div>Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:16:48 +0000Michael Fisher6549 at https://www.desmogblog.comWhat passes for a Brain Trust at Heartland?https://www.desmogblog.com/what-passes-brain-trust-heartland
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/heartland%20logo_1.jpg?itok=w6iyJedw" width="440" height="240" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h3>
Has beens, also-rans, deniers-for-hire on retainer at “think tank”</h3>
<p><strong>Update: <a href="http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2012/february/story63491.html">13th scientist disavows Heartland connection</a></strong> (See: Watkins at bottom of this post)</p>
<p>The Heartland Institute maintains a stable of 13 scientists on retainer for the express purpose of attacking the work of the Nobel Prize winning <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (<span class="caps">IPCC</span>), according to <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%281-15-2012%29%202012%20Heartland%20Budget%20%282%29.pdf">budget</a> information released last week in the <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/heartland-insider-exposes-institute-s-budget-and-strategy">Heartland document dump</a>.</p>
<p>The scientists, ranging from one of the world's least credible deniers-for-hire (<a href="//www.desmogblog.com/no-apology-is-owed-dr-s-fred-singer-and-none-will-be-forthcoming">Dr. S. Fred Singer</a>) to a sessional lecturer on the evolution and history of the domestic dog (<a href="http://anthropology.uvic.ca/people/faculty/adjunct_and_sessional.php">Susan Crockford</a>), include no top climate scientists currently publishing in the peer-reviewed literature.</p>
<p>The best paid “expert” on the Heartland list is <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/craig-idso">Craig Idso,</a> a former Director of Environmental Science at Peabody Energy (the largest coal company in the world). Heartland pays Idso $11,600 a month through his <a href="http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/12/dirty-dozen-climate-change-denial-11-idso-family%20%20">Center for the Study of <span class="caps">CO</span>2 <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Global Change</a>, which like the Heartland Institute, has charitable status and therefore operates with an effective subsidy from the American taxpayer. (Funny how quick libertarians are to fleece old Uncle Sam when <span class="caps">THEY</span> get to kick the money back to their rich friends.)</p>
<!--break-->
<p>Coming in at $5,000 a month is Idso's principal partner in the regular <span class="caps">IPCC</span> attack, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">Fred Singer</a>, who for the last 20 years has denied pretty much any health threat with a corporate sponsor: the health impacts of second-hand smoke; coal's role in creating acid rain; the danger of asbestos; or <span class="caps">DDT</span>; the role of <span class="caps">CFC</span>s in creating the ozone hole; and, of course, the human cause and potential consequences of climate change. (See Naomi Oreskes excellent book, <a href="http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/">Merchants of Doubt</a> for the full, devastating story ot Singer's lucrative denial business.)</p>
<p>Together, Idso and Singer developed what they call the <a href="http://www.skepticalscience.com/denialgate-highlights-heartlands-selective-nipcc-science.html">Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change</a> (<span class="caps">NIPCC</span>), which Heartland funds as “the most comprehensive and authoritative rebuttal of the United Nations’ <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports.”</p>
<p>Number 3 on the list of Heartland's beneficiaries, at $1,667 a month, is the Australian <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/rm-bob-carter#s3">Robert Carter</a>, a geologist at James Cook University in Queensland and a staff member for the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Public_Affairs"> Institute of Public Affairs</a>, an Australian think tank which, like the Heartland Institute,<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1134"> takes funding from the tobacco and oil industries</a>.</p>
<p>The fourth, fifth and sixth experts on Heartland's anonymous donor dole, all at $1,000 a month, are <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/madhav-khandekar">Madhav Khandekar</a>, <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/congressman-calls-hearing-heartland-institute-payments-federal-employee-indur-goklany">Indur Goklany</a> and <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=5">Robert Balling</a>. Khandekar is another think-tank double-dipper, a retired Environment Canada researcher who <a href="http://www.fraserinstitute.org/author.aspx?id=14931&amp;txID=2833">also shows up</a> on the experts list at the Canadian think tank, the Fraser Institute, which subsidized an earlier <span class="caps">IPCC</span> attack called the <a href="http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Independent_Summary_for_Policymakers">Independent Summary for Policymakers</a>. Khandekar has also been an “expert” on other discredited climate change denial organizations, including<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Friends_of_Science"> Friends of Science and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project.</a></p>
<p>Goklany, a Senior Advisor at the <span class="caps"><span class="caps">U.S.</span></span> Interior Department, is <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/congressman-calls-hearing-heartland-institute-payments-federal-employee-indur-goklany">currently under scrutiny</a> over whether the funding he has accepted from Heartland violates <span class="caps">U.S.</span> law against federal employees taking payments that could put them in conflict with their governmental duties.</p>
<p>And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Balling">Robert Balling</a> is a geography professor at Arizona State who turns up as an expert on several industry funded<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=5"> (taxpayer subsidized) policy hothouses</a> masquerading as “think tanks” and educational organizations. Balling was a trendsetter among climate-change deniers for hire, working as early as the late 1990s for the coal barons of the Western Fuels Association on its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greening_Earth_Society">Greening Earth Society</a> project.</p>
<p>Coming in with a lower profile and a lower monthly retainer ($750 a month) are <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/anthony-lupo">Anthony Lupo</a>, and Canadian “Terrestrial Animal” specialists Crockford (the dog expert from the University of Victoria) and Mitch Taylor, a <a href="http://geography.lakeheadu.ca/taylor/taylor.html">contract lecturer </a>at the Lakehead University who has argued that polar bears are in no danger from climate change.</p>
<p>The weather forecaster <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_D%27Aleo">Joe D’Aleo</a> gets just $500 a month, (kid-stuff compared to the <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/15/some-notes-on-the-heartland-leak/">$88,000 that Heartland is kicking over</a> to D'Aleo's meteorological colleague Anthony Watts). D'Aleo, co-founder of The Weather Channel, predicted in the 2008 Farmers Almanac that the world was entering a cooling phase. (No word whether he updated that prediction after <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/temp-analysis-2009.html">2009 was the second hottest year on record</a> and <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/jan/HQ_11-014_Warmest_Year.html">2010 tied for the hottest</a>.)</p>
<p>It must be disappointing to be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Soon">Willie Soon</a>, at just $125 a month. Soon is an astrophysicist at the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard-Smithsonian_Center_for_Astrophysics" title="Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics">Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics</a>. But his credibility has sustained a series of terrible blows. It was reported last year, for example, that he took took more than $1 million in funding from oil and coal companies, including the Koch Foundation, Southern and Exxon. He'd earlier been reportedly taking money from the American Petroleum Institute and he and <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/sallie-baliunas">Sallie Baliunas</a> had a paper discredited in the journal Climate Research (it was so bad, <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Storm-Brews-Over-Global/27779">the editor resigned in protest</a>).</p>
<p>Also budgeted at $125 a month are <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Craig_Loehle">Craig Loehle</a>, a pulp and paper industry scientist, and <strike><a href="http://www.hu.mtu.edu/hu_dept/faculty_staff/single_fac_pages/watkins.php">David Watkins,</a> who appears to be a water resources specialist in the civil and environmental engineering department at Michigan Tech. </strike>There being no obvious public record of Watkins having said anything embarrassingly silly about climate science, it's not immediately clear what his name is doing on the Heartland list.</p>
<p><strong>Update: David Watkins, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director at Michigan Tech contacted the DeSmogBlog today to say:</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>I have had no contact with the Heartland Institute, have not received [nor have been offered] any funding from them, and have no idea how I ended up in their 2012 budget. M(y) university administration is trying to contact Heartland to find out how this misuse of my name occurred.</strong><br /> </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Apologies to Dr. Watkins for any embarrassment we might have caused him by repeating the erroneous, and potentially damaging, contention that he was accepting money from Heartland. Read the <a href="http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2012/february/story63491.html">official response from Michigan Tech University</a>.</strong></p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/willie-soon">Willie Soon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/821">Heartland Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1534">Robert Carter</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2564">Madhav Khandekar</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4149">Craig Idso</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4186">Susan Crockford</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7302">Anthony Lupo</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7818">robert balling</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8423">denialgate</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8443">DenierGate</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8449">Indur Goklany</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8457">Mitch Taylor</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8458">Joe D’Aleo</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8459">Craig Loehle</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8460">David Watkins</a></div></div></div>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:56:57 +0000Richard Littlemore6091 at https://www.desmogblog.comEvaluation shows "Faked" Heartland Climate Strategy Memo is Authentichttps://www.desmogblog.com/evaluation-shows-faked-heartland-climate-strategy-memo-authentic
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/heartland%20logo_0.jpg?itok=sKsMNfF0" width="440" height="240" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>A line-by-line evaluation of the <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/../../sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2012%20Climate%20Strategy%20%283%29.pdf">Climate Strategy</a> memo, which the <a href="http://heartland.org/press-releases/2012/02/20/heartland-institute-comments-fakegate">Heartland Institute has repeatedly denounced as a “fake”</a> shows no “<em><u>obvious and gross </u>misstatements of fact,</em>” as Heartland has alleged. On the contrary, the Climate Strategy document is corroborated by Heartland’s own material and/or by its allies and employees.</p>
<p>It also uses phrases, language and, in many cases, whole sentences that were taken directly from Heartland’s own material. Only someone who had <u>previous access</u> to all of that material could have prepared the Climate Strategy in its current form.</p>
<p>In all the circumstances – taking into account Peter Gleick’s explanation of the origin of the Heartland documents, and in direct contradiction of Heartland’s stated position – DeSmogBlog has concluded that the Climate Strategy memo is authentic. </p>
<!--break-->
<p>Judge for yourself:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>January 2012</strong></p>
<p><strong>Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy</strong></p>
<p>Given the increasingly important role the Heartland Institute is playing in leading the fight to prevent the implementation of dangerous policy actions to address the supposed risks of global warming, it is useful to set priorities for our efforts in 2012.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: Heartland has in fact played an increasingly important role in attacking the science of global warming. After the <span class="caps">UK</span> Royal Society publicly attacked Exxon for its financial support of the leading climate-change-denying think tanks, the Competitive Enterprise Institute stepped back as the most prominent and public policy house. That opened ground for the Heartland Institute, which launched its <a href="http://climateconference.heartland.org/">International Conference on Climate Change</a> series (the “<a href="//www.desmogblog.com/../../ny-denial-a-palooza-is-a-media-hit">Denial-a-palooza</a>”) in 2008. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Heartland material about climate change also regularly employs terminology such as “<em>dangerous policy actions</em>” and “<em>supposed risks of global warming</em>”. One of Heartland’s long-standing arguments is that addressing global warming will have catastrophic consequences for the economy.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This document offers such a set of priorities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: It is entirely logical that Heartland’s Board would want to consider setting priorities for its anti-global warming activities at its first meeting of the calendar and fiscal year.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><u>I propose that at this point it be kept confidential and only be distributed to a subset of Institute Board and senior staff.</u></p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: Peter Gleick’s explanation that he received this memo in hard copy form by anonymous mail is consistent with it not having formed part of the complete package given to the Board. It appears that Gleick must have scanned the printed document to create the electronic version that he could distribute with the later material he obtained from Heartland. </strong></p>
<p><strong>If the document had been given to all Institute Board members and formed an element of the complete package, Gleick would presumably have received it twice – the second time when he requested and was sent the Board documents. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Assuming the Climate Strategy memo was not shared with the Institute’s entire Board, it would be extremely embarrassing for the memo’s author and inner circle recipients to admit they had withheld it from other Board members. This would create a powerful incentive for the author to deny this document’s authenticity: the implied insult to Board members that Heartland treats as second-class could be more damaging to Heartland than the public embarrassment of its inflammatory subject matter.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>More details can be found in our <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/../../sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%281-15-2012%29%202012%20Heartland%20Budget%20%282%29.pdf">2012 Proposed Budget document</a> and <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/../../sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%281-15-2012%29%202012%20Fundraising%20Plan.pdf">2012 Fundraising Strategy</a> memo. In 2012 our efforts will focus in the following areas:</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: Peter Gleick <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/../../whistleblower-authenticates-heartland-documents">now confirms</a> that he received these documents by email directly from Heartland. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Yet the Institute has refused to acknowledge their authenticity, even going so far as to accuse the DeSmogBlog and other sources of publishing “stolen” documents without admitting their origin. Given the overlap between these documents and the Climate Strategy, it will be hard for Heartland to continue to disavow the latter as “a fake” now that the main tranche of documents has been authenticated. </strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Increased climate project fundraising</strong></p>
<p>Our climate work is attractive to funders, especially our key Anonymous Donor (whose contribution dropped from $1,664,150 in 2010 to $979,000 in 2011 - about 20% of our total 2011 revenue).</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: Various documents confirm there is an “Anonymous Donor.” The contribution figures in brackets are confirmed in the Heartland <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/../../sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%281-15-2012%29%202012%20Heartland%20Budget%20%282%29.pdf">Budget</a> document and corroborated in Table 5 at page 21 of the 2012 Fundraising Plan document. Table 5 shows that in 2010, $964.150 received from the Anonymous Donor was allocated to “Global Warming Projects.” In 2009, the sum of $1,732,180 was allocated to Global Warming Projects and in 2008, the sum of $3,300,000. </strong></p>
<p><strong>The general financial downturn in 2008 may well explain the subsequent year-over-year decline in donations from the Anonymous Donor. (The other conclusion would be that the Anonymous Donor thought Heartland was not effective.)</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>He has promised an increase in 2012 - see the 2011 Fourth Quarter Financial Report.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This statement is corroborated by the 2012 Fundraising Plan which states at page 20 under the heading “<em>4. Anonymous Donor</em>”:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>Because the Anonymous Donor has given a large percentage of the Heartland’s budget in past years, it is useful to single out his expected gift at the beginning of the year. </em></strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>In 2011, he gave Heartland $979,000, less than any year since 2005. In January 2012, he pledged $1 million. We project that he will give $250,000 more over the course of the year.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Table 6 at page 21 confirms the Anonymous Donor’s million dollar pledge for the first quarter of 2012, of which $194,000 is allocated for the Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">NIPCC</span>) Project, $44,000 for the (Anthony Watts) Weather Stations Project, and $100,000 for the Global Warming Curriculum Project.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Further corroboration is found in the 2012 Proposed Budget which states at page 3:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>Anonymous Donor: We expect the Anonymous Donor to contribute $1,250,000 in 2012 in gifts for budgeted projects, 28 percent more than he contributed in 2011, but still less than he contributed in any other year since 2004. He already pledged to give $1 million in January.</em></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will also pursue additional support from the Charles G. Koch Foundation. They returned as a Heartland donor in 2011 with a contribution of $200,000. We expect to push up their level of support in 2012 and gain access to their network of philanthropists, if our focus continues to align with their interests.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This appears to be a misstatement but only as to timing: the budget and fundraising documents confirm that the Charles G. Koch Foundation gave $25,000 in 2011, and that Heartland expected that figure to jump up to $200,000 in 2012. For example, the Fundraising Plan which states at page 7:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em><span class="dquo">“</span>The Charles G. Koch Foundation returned as a Heartland donor in 2011. We expect to ramp up their level of support in 2012 and gain access to the network of philanthropists they work with.”</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>The same document states at page 13:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><span class="caps">NIPCC</span> is currently funded by two gifts a year from two foundations, both of them requesting anonymity. In 2012 we plan to solicit gifts from other donors to add to what these two donors are giving in order to cover more of our fixed costs for promoting the first two <em>Climate Change Reconsidered</em> volumes and writing and editing the volume scheduled for release in 2013. We hope to raise $200,000 in 2012.</strong></p>
<p><strong>See also the 2012 Proposed Budget at page 4 where a table of Projected Income from Lapsed and First-Time Donors by Project allocates a budget of $200,000 to the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">NIPCC</span>) and a budget of $200,000 to the Global Warming Curriculum Project.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Heartland donors’ apparent appetite for anonymity – and Koch’s toxic profile as a major funder of anti-democratic and anti-climate science activism – would explain why the 2012 Fundraising Plan does not explicitly mention the source of the large infusion of precisely $200,000 in 2012. DeSmogBlog also assumes that the reference to a $200,000 contribution (and not $25,000) in 2011 was probably a slip-up by the Climate Strategy memo’s author, who probably meant to refer to a promise made in 2011 in that amount.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.charleskochfoundationfacts.org/2012/02/foundation-statement-on-heartland-institute/">A disavowal from the Koch Foundation </a>suggests that Heartland will have to abandon its hopes of a $200,000 payment from Koch in 2012. </strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Other contributions will be pursued for this work, especially from corporations whose interests are threatened by climate policies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: The Heartland 2012 <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/../../sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%281-15-2012%29%202012%20Fundraising%20Plan.pdf">Fundraising Plan </a>explicitly states at page 12:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>While ideologically motivated individual donors are apt to contribute for general operating, corporations and (increasingly) foundations want project-specific proposals…During 2012 we plan to fundraise for 10 new or relaunched projects designed to attract new donors.”</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Table 3 at page 6 identifies “Target Groups for Potential Major Donors” which include “<em>Officers, <span class="caps">PR</span> and <span class="caps">GR</span> officials at corporations with an interest in free-market policy messages on topics covered in Heartland publications.” </em>(Heartland has numerous publications concerning global warming.) The sources for that target group include “Media coverage of corporations and industries under attack.”</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Development of our “Global Warming Curriculum for K-12 Classrooms” project.</strong></p>
<p>Principals and teachers are heavily biased toward the alarmist perspective.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: The word “alarmist” is part of the Heartland lexicon. It is their terminology for real climate scientists. The word appears continuously in Heartland publications concerning climate change.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>To counter this we are considering launching an effort to develop alternative materials for K-12 classrooms.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This statement is corroborated by the 2012 Fundraising Plan which states at page 18:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><em>H. Global warming curriculum for K-12 Schools<br />
Many people lament the absence of educational material suitable for K-12 students on global warming that isn’t alarmist or overtly political. … Principals and teachers are heavily biased toward the alarmist perspective. … </em></p>
<p><strong>The 2012 Fundraising Plan then proceeds to detail how Heartland will arrange for the preparation of alternative materials for K-12 classrooms.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are pursuing a proposal from Dr. David Wojick to produce a global warming curriculum for K-12 schools.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: The 2012 Fundraising Plan states at page 18:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>Dr. David Wojick has presented Heartland with a proposal to produce a global warming curriculum for K-12 schools that appears to have great potential for success.</em></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dr. Wojick is a consultant with the Office of Scientific and Technical Information at the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Energy in the area of information and communication science.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: The 2012 Fundraising Plan states at page 18:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>Dr. Wojick is a consultant with the Office of Scientific and Technical Information at the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Energy in the area of information and communication science.</em></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>His effort will focus on providing curriculum that shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain - two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This is corroborated by the 2012 Fundraising Plan which states at page 18: </strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><em>Dr. Wojick proposes to begin work on “modules” for grades 10-12 on climate change (“whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy”), climate models (“models are used to explore various hypotheses about how climate works. Their reliability is controversial”), and air pollution (“whether <span class="caps">CO</span>2 is a pollutant is controversial. It is the global food supply and natural emissions are 20 times higher than human emissions”).</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>We tentatively plan to pay Dr. Wojick $100,000 for 20 modules in 2012, with funding pledged by the Anonymous Donor.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This is corroborated by the 2012 Fundraising Plan which states at page 18:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>We tentatively plan to pay Dr. Wojick $5,000 per module, about $25,000 a quarter, starting in the second quarter of 2012 for this work. The Anonymous donor has pledged the first $100,000 for this project, and we will circulate a proposal to match and then expand upon that investment.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Wojick, who by the way has no background or expertise in climate science, has <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/02/14/425354/internal-documents-climate-denier-heartland-institute-plans-global-warming-curriculum-for-k-12-schools/">confirmed independently</a> that he has been engaged to do this work.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Heartland’s suggestion that climate change is controversial and uncertain bears no relation to the true state of science, which is perhaps why the author of the Climate Strategy Memo admits (in what may be a Freudian slip) that those “<em>two key points …</em></strong><em> <strong>are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science</strong></em>.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Funding for parallel organizations.</strong></p>
<p>Heartland is part of a growing network of groups working the climate issues, some of which we support financially. We will seek additional partnerships in 2012. At present we sponsor the <span class="caps">NIPCC</span> to undermine the official United Nations’ <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports and paid a team of writers $388,000 in 2011 to work on a series of editions <em>of Climate Change Reconsidered. </em>Expenses will be about the same in 2012. <span class="caps">NIPCC</span> is currently funded by two gifts a year from two foundations, both of them requesting anonymity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: The 2012 Proposed Budget states at page 7:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>The two tables below summarize the multi-year budget for the project and personnel costs for the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">NIPCC</span>), an international group of scientists that produces critiques of the reports of the United Nations' <span class="caps">IPCC</span>. Heartland hosts and funds the effort. A growing number of scientists have been recruited by Craig Idso to be contributing authors and editors of <span class="caps">NIPCC</span>’s major reports, a series titled Climate Change Reconsidered. Two volumes have been published so far.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Further, the 2012 Fundraising Plan states at page 13:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>Heartland sponsors the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">NIPCC</span>), an international network of scientists who write and speak out on climate change. Heartland pays a team of scientists approximately $300,000 a year to work on a series of editions of Climate Change Reconsidered, the most comprehensive and authoritative rebuttal of the United Nations’ <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports. </em></strong></p>
<p><strong>The use of “rebuttal” in this context certainly supports the interpretation that the <span class="caps">NIPCC</span>’s purpose is “to undermine the official United Nation's <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports. </strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Another $88,000 is earmarked this year for Heartland staff, incremental expenses, and overhead for editing, expense reimbursement for the authors, and marketing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This is corroborated in the 2012 Fundraising Plan which states at page 13:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong><em>Another $88,000 is earmarked for Heartland staff, incremental expenses, and overhead for editing, expense reimbursement for the authors, and marketing.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Note that the political – rather than scientific – nature of the <span class="caps">NIPCC</span>'s work has been well-documented <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/11/not-the-ipcc-nipcc-report/">elsewhere</a>.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Funding for selected individuals outside of Heartland.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our current budget includes funding for high-profile individuals who regularly and publicly counter the alarmist <span class="caps">AGW</span> message. At the moment, this funding goes primarily to Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), Fred Singer ($5,000 per month, plus expenses), Robert Carter ($1,667 per month), and a number of other individuals, but we will consider expanding it, if funding can be found.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This is corroborated by table 3 at page 7 of the 2012 Proposed Budget which describes Craig Idso as a Senior Editor, Center for the Study of <span class="caps">CO</span>2 and Global Change; Fred Singer as Co-Editor, Science and Environmental Policy Project; and Robert Carter, Co-Editor, James Cook University and Institute for Public Affairs, Australia.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Note that Heartland’s propensity for inadvertent misstatement spills into its own budget documents. For example, Heartland's Budget speaks of paying “Susan Crockford” for a chapter “2.2 Terrestrial Animals,” at the University of Victoria in “Australia.” Crockford is in fact a professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia (which Joe Bast ought to realize is in Canada). Crockford advertises herself as an expert in “the evolution and history of the domestic dog.” There is no mention in the Heartland material of any qualifications relevant to climate change. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Bob Carter (who really <span class="caps">IS</span> from Australia) confirmed the information about him in the 2012 Proposed Budget during an interview with the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/scientist-denies-he-is-mouthpiece-of-us-climatesceptic-think-tank-20120215-1t6yi.html">Sydney Morning Herald</a>.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Expanded climate communications</strong></p>
<p>Heartland plays an important role in climate communications, especially through our in-house experts (e.g., Taylor) through his Forbes blog and related high profile outlets, our conferences, and through coordination with external networks (such as <span class="caps">WUWT</span> and other groups capable of rapidly mobilizing responses to new scientific findings, news stories, or unfavorable blog posts).</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This is corroborated by <a href="http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/">Heartland's website which lists James Taylor</a> as a Senior Fellow. Taylor does, indeed, write periodically in <em>Forbes. </em>Heartland also appears to have a close relationship with <span class="caps">WUWT</span>, which is weather forecaster Anthony Watts website, What's Up With That. For example, when Peter Gleick publicly acknowledged his role in getting Heartland to hand over their Board package, the Institute chose to use <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/20/statement-by-the-heartland-institute-on-gleick-confession/"><span class="caps">WUWT</span> to release their reaction</a>, even in priority to publishing the information on their own website.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Efforts at places such as <em>Forbes</em> are especially important now that they have begun to allow high profile climate scientists (such as Gleick) to post warmist science essays that counter our own.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gleick">Dr. Peter Gleick</a>, who explained the origins of the leak of Heartland documents, is also a frequent contributor at <em>Forbes. </em>And again, throughout this document, as on its website and in other documents, Heartland uses the adjective “warmist” to indicate someone who gives an accurate interpretation to the human cause – and likely effects – of global warming.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This influential audience has usually been reliably anti-climate and it is important to keep opposing voices out. Efforts might also include cultivating more neutral voices with big audiences (such as Revkin at DotEarth/<span class="caps">NYT</span>imes, who has a well-known antipathy for some of the more extreme <span class="caps">AGW</span> communicators such as Romm, Trenberth, and Hansen) or Curry (who has become popular with our supporters).</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This is mostly editorial comment, although <em>Forbes </em>has distinguished itself on many previous occasions by choosing to concentrate on material that suggests there is still some debate over the causes of climate change. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Andrew Revkin <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/documents-appear-to-reveal-broad-effort-to-amplify-climate-uncertainty/">commented on his blog</a> that he felt this reference undermined the credibility of the Climate Strategy memo, saying, “It (the strategy document) always seemed dubious, given that the document said it might be worth 'cultivating' me as a 'neutral' voice. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that the group called me “<a href="http://heartland.org/policy-documents/dialogue-global-warming">a noted ally of the alarmist camp</a>.” Certainly, it would be embarrassing for a former <em>New York Times </em>environment reporter to be labelled “neutral” by an organization such as Heartland. But Revkin’s <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/peter-gleick-admits-to-deception-in-obtaining-heartland-climate-files/">attack on Peter Gleick</a> tends to corroborate the Climate Strategy memo’s assessment, especially given that Revkin failed, in the same article, to offer any direct criticism of an organization that has dedicated itself for years to climate disinformation.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have also pledged to help raise around $90,000 in 2012 for Anthony Watts to help him create a new website to track temperature station data.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This is corroborated in the 2012 Fundraising Plan which states at pages 19-20:</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong>Anthony Watts proposes to create a new Web site devoted to accessing the new temperature data from <span class="caps">NOAA</span>’s web site and converting them into easy-to-understand graphs that can be easily found and understood by weathermen and the general interested public. …The new site will be promoted heavily at WattsUpwithThat.com.</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:28.35pt;"><strong>Heartland has agreed to help Anthony raise $88,000 for the project in 2011. The Anonymous donor has already pledged $44,000. We’ll seek to raise the balance.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Further, Anthony Watts himself has <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/15/notes-on-the-fake-heartland-document/">confirmed the details </a>of this project, but he later stated that the rounding up from $88,000 to $90,000 indicated that the document is a fake, saying the Climate Strategy, “</strong><strong>gets the operational details (budget) wrong – especially the points about my project, rounding up to $90,000 from a very specific budget number of $88,000. This suggests trying to inflate the number for a purpose. There’s no evidence of rounding budget numbers in any other document in the set.”<br />
Watts’ criticism of the $2,000 variance is patently absurd.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Finally, we will consider expanding these efforts further, or developing new ones, if funding can be obtained.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>DeSmogBlog: This seems unlikely to represent an “obvious and gross misstatement of fact.”</strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="caps">SUMMARY</span>:</strong></p>
<p>The foregoing analysis demonstrates that the Climate Strategy Memo is an accurate executive summary of the information contained in budget and fundraising documents that were to be put before the Board at its January meeting.</p>
<p>DeSmogBlog therefore sees no basis whatsoever for Heartland’s assertion that the Climate Strategy memo is a ‘fake” which contains “obvious and gross misstatements of fact.”</p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/sepp">SEPP</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/andrew-revkin">andrew revkin</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/676">IPCC</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/695">david wojick</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/765">Royal Society</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/821">Heartland Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1252">james taylor</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1534">Robert Carter</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3350">Anthony Watts</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3408">Kevin Trenbert</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4017">International Conference on Climate Change</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4149">Craig Idso</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4186">Susan Crockford</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4877">Joe Romm</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5017">Peter Gleick</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5025">denial-a-palooza</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5254">WUWT</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5327">Judith Curry</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8425">Charles G. Koch Foundation</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8434">NIPCC</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8453">Jim Hansen</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8454">Climate Strategy</a></div></div></div>Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:48:02 +0000Brendan Demelle and Richard Littlemore6089 at https://www.desmogblog.comMashey Report Confirms Heartland's Manipulation; Exposes Singer's Deception https://www.desmogblog.com/mashey-report-confirms-heartland-s-manipulation-exposes-singer-s-deception
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/fred%20singer%20new_0.jpg?itok=eFb7Pq1R" width="125" height="94" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h3>
<br />
S. Fred Singer Lied to the <span class="caps">IRS</span> about identity of his chair</h3>
<p>The new report by computer scientist, researcher and DeSmogBlog contributor John Mashey <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/fake-science-fakexperts-funny-finances-free-tax">(next post)</a>, completely corroborates the authenticity of leaked Heartland Institute budget, planning and fundraising documents <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/heartland-insider-exposes-institute-s-budget-and-strategy">released on the DeSmogBlog earlier today</a>.</p>
<p>Mashey's report also produces evidence that Dr. S. Fred Singer, who Heartland keeps on a $5,000-a-month retainer to spread disinformation about climate change, claimed <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/fred-seitz-death-of-an-icon">Dr. Frederick Seitz</a> as the chair of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_%26_Environmental_Policy_Project">Science and Environmental Policy Project</a> (<span class="caps">SEPP</span>) for two full years <span class="caps">AFTER</span> Seitz died.</p>
<p>As always when Mashey is involved, this new report is painstakingly detailed and carefully referenced throughout. It both corroborates and is corroborated by the leaked Heartland documents, which reinforce Mashey's conclusion that Heartland is a for-profit public relations and lobbying firm that is operating with non-profit status by misrepresenting the nature of its activities in its own tax filings.</p>
<p>Specifically, Mashey's report,<em> <a href="http://Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax">Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax</a></em><a href="http://Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax">,</a> documents the following conclusions:</p>
<!--break-->
<p>1. Fred Singer committed perjury in his tax filings to the <span class="caps">IRS</span> by claiming that Fred Seitz continued to chair Singer's own tax-protected <span class="caps">SEPP</span> for two years after Seitz death in 2008.</p>
<p>2. Singer made other representations in his 990 tax filings that either skirted the rules or, at the very least, let him shelter his own investments from taxation.</p>
<p>3. Singer is a lobbyist, not a scientist (at least, he has not produced any significant work of science in several decades) and is therefore in violation of limits to undeclared lobbying activity.</p>
<p>4. The Heartland Institute has a long-established reputation as an organization dedicated to providing legitimacy to industries that want to confuse the public about science. For example, Heartland's President Joe Bast has been a leading defender of such things as the “Joe Camel” campaign to encourage children to take up smoking - even while the tobacco industry was funding Heartland's operations. This was corroborated by the Heartland budget documents which show that both Phillip Morris and Reynolds American continue as Heartland donors.</p>
<p>7. Heartland's publication, <em>Environment and Climate News, </em>is rife with “science” stories that are demonstrably untruthful or misleading.</p>
<p>8. Heartland has spent lavishly on conferences whose only apparent function was to sow confusion about climate science. It also has paid government employees and politicians to attend these events.</p>
<p>9. Heartland has sponsored Fred Singer and Craig Idso to produce the so-called Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change s a regular and organized attack on the legitimate reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This too was corroborated in the Heartland budget documents, which show that both Idso and Singer on on retainer at Heartland.</p>
<p>10. While insisting in its tax filings that it is a think tank, Heartland constantly advertises among potential donors its ability to reach and influence <span class="caps">US</span> legislators in apparent violation of lobbying rules.</p>
<p>Mashey's report, on its own, made a devastating case that Heartland and several other purported “think tanks” are taking an unfair subsidy from the American taxpayer, while lobbying for some of the world's most profitable industries. Mashey also demonstrates that Heartland, Singer's <span class="caps">SEPP</span>, Craig Idso's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change" title="Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change">Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change</a> and its subsidiary front group, Robert Ferguson's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Public_Policy_Institute">Science and Public Policy Institute</a>, are not primarily research institutions, but rather advocacy organizations. As “think tanks” they sponsor very little “thinking” (in the form of scientific or even social research) and instead serve as weapons in a communications war against policy on issues such as climate change.</p>
<p>All of this is, again, corroborated by the Heartland documents leaked earlier today. This, for example, is Heartland's description of its Global Warming Curriculum for K-12 Classrooms Project, which it is paying Dr. David Wojick to Develop:</p>
<p>“His effort will focus on providing curriculum that shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain, two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.”</p>
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/821">Heartland Institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4149">Craig Idso</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8422">Whitnesy Ball</a></div></div></div>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:26:32 +0000Richard Littlemore6070 at https://www.desmogblog.comHeartland Insider Exposes Institute's Budget and Strategyhttps://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-insider-exposes-institute-s-budget-and-strategy
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/heartland.gif?itok=p3w0NcnH" width="400" height="200" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>An anonymous donor calling him (or her)self “Heartland Insider” has released the Heartland Institute's budget, fundraising plan, its Climate Strategy for 2012 and sundry other documents (all attached) that prove all of the worst allegations that have been levelled against the organization.</p>
<p>It is clear from the documents that Heartland advocates against responsible climate mitigation and then uses that advocacy to raise money from oil companies and “other corporations whose interests are threatened by climate policies.” Heartland particularly celebrates the funding that it receives from the fossil fuel fortune being the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Family_Foundations">Charles G. Koch Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>Heartland also continues to collect money from Philip Morris parent company <a href="http://www.altria.com/en/cms/Home/default.aspx">Altria</a> as well as from the tobacco giant Reynolds American, while maintaining ongoing advocacy against policies related to smoking and health.</p>
<p>Heartland's policy positions, strategies and budget distinguish it clear as a lobby firm that is misrepresenting itself as a “think tank” - it budgets $4.1 million of its $6.4 million in projected expenditures for Editorial, Government Relations, Communications, Fundraising, and Publications, and the only activity it plans that could vaguely be considered policy development is the writing of a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/02/14/425354/internal-documents-climate-denier-heartland-institute-plans-global-warming-curriculum-for-k-12-schools/">curriculum package for use in confusing high schoolers about climate change</a>.</p>
<p>There will be more comment and analysis to follow on DeSmogBlog and elsewhere, but we wanted to make this information available so that others can also scrutinize the documents and bring their expertise to the task.</p>
<p>Deep Climate – <a href="http://deepclimate.org/2012/02/14/heartland-insider-releases-budget-and-strategy-documents/" target="_blank">Heartland Institute Budget and Strategy Revealed</a></p>
<p>Greg Laden – <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2012/02/heartlandgate_anti-science_ins.php" target="_blank">Anti-Science Institute’s Insider Reveals Secrets</a></p>
<p>Planet 3.0 – <a href="http://planet3.org/2012/02/14/is-turnabout-fair-play/" target="_blank">Is turnabout Fair Play?</a></p>
<p>Climate Crocks - <a href="http://climatecrocks.com/2012/02/15/how-is-joe-bast-like-joe-camel-looks-like-were-going-to-find-out/">How is Joe Bast like Joe Camel?</a></p>
<p>Climate Progress - <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/02/14/425649/heartland-documents-denial-group-koch-money-dupe-children-cultivate-revkin/">Heartland Documents Reveal Fringe Denial Group Plans to Pursue Koch Money, Dupe Children and Cultivate Revkin</a></p>
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<tr class="odd"><td><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%281-15-2012%29%202012%20Fundraising%20Plan.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=92031" title="(1-15-2012) 2012 Fundraising Plan.pdf">(1-15-2012) 2012 Fundraising Plan.pdf</a></span></td><td>89.87 KB</td> </tr>
<tr class="even"><td><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%281-15-2012%29%202012%20Heartland%20Budget%20%282%29.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=127606" title="(1-15-2012) 2012 Heartland Budget (2).pdf">(1-15-2012) 2012 Heartland Budget (2).pdf</a></span></td><td>124.62 KB</td> </tr>
<tr class="odd"><td><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2%20Agenda%20for%20January%2017%20Meeting.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=7577" title="2 Agenda for January 17 Meeting.pdf">2 Agenda for January 17 Meeting.pdf</a></span></td><td>7.4 KB</td> </tr>
<tr class="even"><td><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2010_IRS_Form_990%20%282%29.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=2827319" title="2010_IRS_Form_990 (2).pdf">2010_IRS_Form_990 (2).pdf</a></span></td><td>2.7 MB</td> </tr>
<tr class="odd"><td><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2012%20Climate%20Strategy%20%283%29.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=98879" title="2012 Climate Strategy (3).pdf">2012 Climate Strategy (3).pdf</a></span></td><td>96.56 KB</td> </tr>
<tr class="even"><td><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Binder1%20%282%29.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=56688" title="Binder1 (2).pdf">Binder1 (2).pdf</a></span></td><td>55.36 KB</td> </tr>
<tr class="odd"><td><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Board%20Meeting%20Package%20January%2017.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=7009" title="Board Meeting Package January 17.pdf">Board Meeting Package January 17.pdf</a></span></td><td>6.84 KB</td> </tr>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4149">Craig Idso</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8413">Heartland Insider</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8414">Renolds American</a></div></div></div>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:14:06 +0000Richard Littlemore6067 at https://www.desmogblog.comWeird Anti-Science - Donna Bethell, SEPP, and Sandia National Laboratorieshttps://www.desmogblog.com/weird-anti-science-donna-bethell-sepp-and-sandia-national-laboratories
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/shutterstock_16017175.smaller.png?itok=CT91VaC0" width="150" height="225" alt="Back to school, dunce." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Donna Bethell recently <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-warming-ever-the-politically-hot-topic/2011/08/21/gIQANdnWaJ_story.html">complained to the Washington Post</a> about an article that mentioned human causation of global warming:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It also cited two well-known skeptics of this claim. Were those skeptics allowed to explain why they are skeptics? No, they were only allowed to say that climate change is a political issue. <strong>Well, duh</strong>.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The “skeptics” in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/climate-change-science-makes-for-hot-politics/2011/08/18/gIQA1eZJQJ_story_2.html">article</a> were Rush Limbaugh and Marc Morano. Lawyer Bethell's husband is political writer Thomas Bethell, whose book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Science-Guides/dp/089526031X/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1320121411&amp;sr=8-1-spell"><em>The Politically Incorrect Guide(<span class="caps">TM</span>) to Science (2005) </em></a>promoted intelligent design and <span class="caps">AIDS</span> denialism, but scoffed at any dangers from global warming, radiation, dioxins, <span class="caps">DDT</span>, loss of biodiversity, etc. It lauded Fred Singer and fictioneer Michael Crichton. Donna rated it highly and urged people to buy it:</p>
<!--break-->
<blockquote>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>(5 stars)<strong>This guide shows you other people are lost</strong>, November 21, 2005 …<strong> Most of us are a little afraid of science</strong>. <strong>We never quite got it in high school</strong> and it could be pretty icky, too…But what if the experts are wrong? And how is the non-expert to know? Never fear, Tom Bethell is here to help us separate the wheat from the chaff. …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All this makes perfect sense, given that she told the Post that she “serves on the board of the Science <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Environmental Policy Project (<span class="caps">SEPP</span>),” <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer">Fred Singer</a> 's little thinktank.</p>
<p>The 32-page attachment gives the details, with instructive quotes, including Tom's long arguments against relativity with senior physicists. His book is a cornucopia of ideological non-science. The 17-page global warming chapter alone offers 24 of the wrong arguments from <a href="http://www.skepticalscience.com/fixednum.php">Skeptical Science</a>. Page 4 shows the web of anti-science advocacy in which the Bethells are unsurprisingly enmeshed.</p>
<p>Why would anyone care? Anti-science is all too common around Washington, <span class="caps">DC</span>.</p>
<p>But imagine one found an astrologer in a position of influence over <span class="caps">NASA</span> or a tobacco executive over the National Institutes of Health. Would that worry a taxpayer?</p>
<p><strong>Somehow, Donna Bethell has been, for at least 7 years, a member of the Board of <a href="http://www.sandia.gov">Sandia National Laboratories</a>, a major <span class="caps">US</span> national science/engineering resource. </strong></p>
<p>Who recommended her and kept her there? Does she get paid for this? If so, in Meatloaf's words, “… I Want My Money Back.” Put coffee down before reading the attached report <span class="caps">PDF</span>.</p>
<p>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-54497p1.html">Sandra Cunningham</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a>.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-profile-related field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Related Profile(s) :&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/s-fred-singer">S. Fred Singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/myron-ebell">Myron Ebell</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/ken-haapala">Ken Haapala</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/william-happer">William Happer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/art-robinson">Art Robinson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/edward-wegman">Edward Wegman</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/sepp">SEPP</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1196">marc morano</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1402">rush limbaugh</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6914">George Marshall Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7581">Donna Bethell</a></div></div></div>Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:26:58 +0000John Mashey5823 at https://www.desmogblog.comSkeptics for Exxon: Oil Funds Climate of Criticismhttps://www.desmogblog.com/skeptics-exxon-oil-funds-climate-criticism
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/Exxon_1.jpg?itok=2o831y6R" width="96" height="96" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2011/04/900-papers-supporting-climate-scepticism-exxon-links">The Carbon Brief</a> (<span class="caps">TCB</span>) has a nice analysis on the not-very-startling coincidence that at least nine of the top 10 “skeptical” “scientists” who are publishing on climate change have direct links to Exxon.</p>
<p>This is interesting, as well, in that it doesn’t account for the increasing amounts of money being invested invested by funders (such as the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Family_Foundations">Koch brothers</a>) who have been taking a less transparent approach than Exxon in acknowledging their links.</p>
<p>In a<a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2011/04/900-papers-part-two-using-our-paper-is-misleading"> second instalment</a>, <span class="caps">TCB</span> also took a closer look at both the quality and content of the purported “900+” science papers identified by the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_Warming_Policy_Foundation">Global Warming Policy Foundation</a> as somehow skeptical of the science of climate change. The news, for the skeptics as for the climate, turns out to be all bad.<!--break--></p>
<p>First, only a small number of the papers actually appeared in reputable publications (eg., 34 in <em>Nature, </em>33 in <em>Science), </em>and many of those either don’t address the climate question directly or do <span class="caps">NOT</span> come to the conclusion that the <span class="caps">GWPF</span> attributes. For example, as Professor Peter deMenocal, of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, told the Carbon Brief:</p>
<p class="quoteBackground" style="padding-left: 30px;"> “No, this is not an accurate representation of my work and I’ve said so many times to them and in print. I’ve asked Dennis Avery of the Heartland Institute (A <span class="caps">GWPF</span> collaborator) to take my name off [another similar] list four times and I’ve never had a response. There are 15 other Columbia colleagues on there as well … and all want their names removed.”</p>
<p class="quoteBackground">So, the list isn’t accurate or generated from a particularly reputable cross section of publications: who would come up with such shoddy work?</p>
<p class="quoteBackground">Well, the anthropologist and <span class="caps">GWPF</span> Director <a href="//www.desmogblog.com/benny_peiser">Benny Peiser</a> has <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2006/10/peiser_admits_he_was_97_wrong.php">extensive experience</a> fabricating lists like this in the past. And, as <span class="caps">TCB</span> confirms in a<a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2011/04/energy-and-environment-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cjournal-of-choice-for-climate-skeptics%E2%80%9D-part-iii-of-the-analysis-of-the-900plus-climate-skeptic-papers"> third instalment</a> of their analysis, the largest proportion of these so-called skeptical papers emerge from a widely disregarded publication called <em>Energy and Environment, </em>which (coincidentially!?) is co-edited by Benny Pieser.</p>
<p class="quoteBackground"><span class="caps">TCB</span> notes that regard in the scientific community is measured by how frequently your papers are cited by other scientists. Over a four-year period, this is calculated as an “impact factor,” and for comparison, the scientific standard-bearer <em>Nature’s </em>impact factor is 30. The <em>Journal of Climate</em>, a much smaller but still very credible publication carries an impact factor of 3.57, while Pieser’s <em><span class="caps">E&amp;E</span> </em>comes up with a disappointing (one might even say risible) 0.42. That is, the papers published therein are attracting considerably less than one citation every four years.</p>
<p class="quoteBackground">One final note on <span class="caps">GWPF</span>, which set the <span class="caps">TCB</span> analysis in motion by trying to promote the list of 900 in the first place. It’s a project of the former <span class="caps">UK</span> Chancellor of the Exchequer - and climate denying hobbyist - Nigel Lawson, an effort, according to <a href="http://www.thegwpf.org/who-we-are/history-and-mission.html">Lawson’s own manifesto</a>, to convince the “<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">media to become more balanced in its coverage of climate change” (which presumably means that they should deny the science at least half the time).</span></span></p>
<p class="quoteBackground"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Have a look, though, at the <span class="caps">GWPF</span>’s Academic Advisory Council and see what’s missing (Hint: climate scientists). Among 27 advisors, only Richard Lindzen has a strong claim to being an actual climate scientist. The rest are economists, physicists, anthropologists, journalists and sundry other scientific or political activists who appear to have no qualms about participating in the climate conversation, regardless of their lack of relevant qualifications.</span></span></p>
<p class="quoteBackground"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Of course, one might reasonably say that the <span class="caps">GWPF</span>’s work should be judged on its merit, rather than on the credentials of its advisors. In which case, one should return to the <span class="caps">TCB</span> analysis which reveals, well, no quality work whatsoever.<br /></span></span></p></div></div></div><!-- iCopyright Horizontal Tag -->
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<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/patrick-michaels">patrick michaels</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/willie-soon">Willie Soon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/sherwood-idso">Sherwood Idso</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/john-christy">John Christy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/637">fred singer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1077">sallie baliunas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6439">The Carbon Brief</a></div></div></div>Wed, 11 May 2011 20:25:23 +0000Richard Littlemore5345 at https://www.desmogblog.com